06 November 2023 , 15:56
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Monty Don accepts he won't be on Gardeners' World forever and backed his replacement to be green-fingered female.
The 68-year-old has appeared on the BBC programme for the last 20 years but says he expects to move on within the next five years. He has been speaking about whoever will eventually take over and says he says the show much move with the times.
Much to the disappointment of his army of fans, he says he'll call it a day before too long. Monty says it is only right that whoever gets his job when the time comes was more representative of the current generation and wants the hit show to have the correct voice.
He has spoken about his possible replacements (BBC/Richard Hanmer)In an interview with The Guardian, he confirmed he has plans quit the programme but doesn't know exactly when. He said: "I would like to think the next Gardeners’ World presenter ideally would be female, would represent either singly, or in multiplicity, the diversity in this country, that has at least some urban context.
"The world’s changing; we need to change with it – in many ways, it’s likely I’m the last middle-aged, middle-class white male with a large garden doing Gardeners’ World." He went on to say if there was to be someone with a big garden of their own, they would have to be a wealthy countryside-dweller. He worried that could be 'out of touch'.
Monty Don shares why beloved family member stopped appearing on Gardener's World
Monty went on to discuss his unlikely sex symbol status, something he admitted to finding "embarrassing" but says he would much rather be him than someone else. The heartbroken star was forced to sit out an episode of Gardeners' World last month after sharing his heartache over the death of his dog.
Monty addressed the death of his "much missed" pooch, Brenda, in a rare social media post on International Dog Day. He replied to a tweet from the programme's account, which showed a lovely photo of his pet looking out over a wheelbarrow.
Confirming he had said goodbye to her, he wrote: "Ah lovely picture of Brenda. Much missed." He was flooded with support from his fans after he paid tribute to his companion, who viewers didn't ever see on the programme. Brenda was one of two miniature dachshunds he kept at Longmeadow as the camera shy pups stayed out of the spotlight.
Monty is known for his love of dogs and often offers gardening advice to viewers alongside his two golden retrievers, Ned and Nellie. He is occasionally joined by his Yorkshire terrier Patti on the BBC2 programme but they won't be appearing this evening, it has been confirmed.
Animal-lover Monty regularly shares updates on his dogs, recently revealing he is besotted with a new dog, Ned, whom he confirmed is a ‘replacement’ for Nigel. Speaking before his pets had been introduced Monty joked: "I haven’t told Nellie or Patti yet…" before he added, "so it remains to be seen whether the three dogs will be best buds!"