Monty Don is leaving Gardeners’ World, but it doesn’t spell the end of his TV career as the popular BBC presenter opened up on some struggles he faces behind the scenes
Monty Don stunned gardening fans when he announced his decision to quit Gardeners’ World. This current season will be Monty’s last, 23 years after he took over from Alan Titchmarsh as the BBC show’s main presenter.
Gardeners’ World is far from Monty’s only television work, however. The TV gardener revealed that while he is stepping back from his main job, he is not retiring.
For almost 20 years, the 71-year-old has been travelling around the world to give his take on gardens across the globe. This began with the ambitious Around the World in 80 Gardens, while he has also focused on gardens in Italy, France, America, and Spain.
His latest series, Rhineland Gardens, aired earlier this year. Monty says a new show on island gardens, taking in the likes of Sicily, the Canary Islands and the Greek islands, has also been commissioned.
But while it might seem like a dream to be jetting around the world following your passion, the reality seems to be anything but if Monty is to be believed.
Speaking on the Good Food Podcast, he confirmed the Rhineland series is not going to be the final show, as he opened up about the work that really goes in to making his travel shows. He said: “That was never the intention (for it to be the final show). It’s getting harder and harder to get these programmes commissioned.
“They are a lot of preparation, they are an awful lot of filming. They are a labour of love.”
Monty will have more time to commit to his travel shows now he is leaving Gardeners’ World. He takes the same team on every shoot, calling it “the oldest TV team in the world”.
The iconic presenter is also keen to do a series in Scandinavia, while he also eager to go back and do another shoot in South America.
The interviewer then asked whether these are just places Monty goes to on holiday. The TV star said “the irony is I don’t really go on holiday” – and the travel shows are far harder work than they look.
He said: “It’s harder work doing that than Gardeners’ World, for example. Very often leave the hotel early, at six or something like that. Film all day. Travel, as well. Get to our next location if we’re lucky about half past six, seven, if we’re unlucky, nine.
“Then all the kit has to be unloaded, the batteries charged, I have to do my research for the next day, we have to eat, you get to bed about midnight, up at half past five the next morning, and that’s what we do.
“There are no rest days. A lot of travelling which is tiring in itself. When we filmed British Gardens, which was shot over two years, there were five trips. Each trip, I personally drove 1,000 miles. Huge amounts of travelling around. When we did the Rhineland, one day we filmed in four separate countries on the same day.”
Catch Monty on Gardeners’ World tonight (Friday, September 25) from 8pm to 9pm on BBC Two.
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