I was going to write about Bruce Nauman here, because I couldn’t get a memory out of my head, but then Monty Don announced he was resigning as the lead presenter of Gardeners’ World and I can’t really think about anything else.
The world knew it was coming. I’ve spent years expecting it, but when you think of the difference he made, not just to gardeners, but to viewers, this just hits hard. For twenty-three years, he slowed down time by leading the world’s most popular gardening show, with a focus on stillness and patience.
For most of that time, I’ve obsessively kept my diary clear for 8pm on a Friday. Got genuinely and unreasonably annoyed when live sports scheduling pushed the show off air, and been despondent through winter when my weekly dose of TV calm wasn’t available.
And now he’s gone, and that will change. A new presenter will come in, change the brief, and probably excel in new ways.
I’ll adapt. We all will. It’s only telly. It just means a bit more than that, really.
What else gives you that complete oasis? Not escapism, just serene learning, without pressure, and by celebrating mistakes and embracing change? Knowing that your failures are shared by millions of others, all at the same time? That it’s not you; that Monty’s sweet peas were a bit crap this year too.
Gardeners’ World is unique to its subject. Because those failures and successes are so universal, across something the majority of us do to some extent or another. But I can’t escape the thought that it might have been Monty, not the pursuit of gardening, that made it that way.
It’s got me thinking. Not just about Monty Don – no more than usual at least – but about how something as innocuous as a presenter change can impact the mood of a nation, and whether there’s a way to pursue art in this way?
Ambitious as it might seem, it would be joyful to find something like Gardeners’ World exploring art and culture with that familiarly and routine.
It’s not that art isn’t talked about. It is. There’s a whole Freeview channel dedicated to it, and regular radio shows focussed on it. Podcasts at the top of the charts when they’re at their best. But aside from very occasional local news bulletins, when does the art world really feature in expected and approachable ways if you’re not seeking it out?
Whenever art makes primetime, or even daytime, it’s competitive. There’s some element of needing to be at the top of the game to legitimise yourself. But over half of the UK population practices art or craft as a hobby, and at least 250,000 of us work in some professional capacity in the art world. That’s the population of a large town. Imagine how miserable the world would be if Gardeners’ World had been competitive, or aspirational. Now imagine a world where art isn’t either; where TV simply celebrates the successes, and offers routes to it, rather than limiting us to only the successes.
I don’t know if its possible, and I doubt it’s likely. For now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that peace and inclusion stay central to everything Gardeners’ World is, beyond the reign of Monty Don.
