By Katherine Rushton For The Daily Mail
Published: 00:58 GMT, 22 March 2019 | Updated: 14:36 GMT, 22 March 2019
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Stefan Buczacki, who is a former chairman of the show, has accused the BBC of dumbing down the programme
A former chairman of Gardeners’ Question Time has accused the BBC of ‘dumbing down’ after it handed the reins of the show to an ‘enthusiastic amateur’.
Kathy Clugston was named this week as the first female chairman of the Radio 4 programme.
The Shipping Forecast presenter, 49, admitted she is a gardening ‘novice’ and would ask panellists to ‘spell things out if they get too technical’.
But now Professor Stefan Buczacki, one of her predecessors, has criticised the Corporation for choosing someone with little horticultural experience. He accused BBC bosses of choosing ‘style over substance’ and sidelining qualified experts. He said: ‘The BBC are obsessed with enthusiastic amateurs and seem not to recognise the merit … of the qualified professional.
‘I am not really sure the public can have respect for someone who knows no more gardening and probably in many cases knows a lot less gardening than they do themselves. It is one aspect of dumbing down. It is not treating
