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Why North Korea has blurred the jeans of its new TV star... Alan Titchmarsh
The gardener is a celebrity in the pariah state, but his blue jeans are viewed with suspicion and blurred out
Alan Titchmarsh can count himself among the few British celebrities to appear on North Korean state television – but only from the waist up.
The broadcaster had his jeans blurred by Pyongyang’s censors in an episode of the BBC’s Garden Secrets when it was aired on Korean Central Television this week.
North Korea has outlawed jeans since the early 1990s because they are viewed as a symbol of US imperialism.
Titchmarsh, 74, appears to present a peculiar dilemma for those in charge of the reclusive regime’s strict broadcasting rules.
On the one hand, the promotion of gardening and greenhouses holds a special place in North Korean propaganda, particularly at a time of widespread food shortages among the population.
State media only last week claimed that leader Kim Jong-un had opened the “world’s biggest vegetable farm”, the Kangdong General Greenhouse Farm, with his revered young daughter Kim Ju-ae as a sign of his concern for his people’s well-being.
On the other hand, the wholesome Titchmarsh’s unexpected popularity in North Korea is somewhat marred by his fashion choices – it would not do to show the veteran presenter in “anti-regime” jeans.
As a result, the presenter is seen kneeling in a garden bed tending to plants while wearing fuzzy blue trousers.
The clumsy attempt to hide his jeans seems all the more ridiculous as foreign visitors were permitted to wear jeans around Pyongyang when it was still open for tourism activities before the pandemic.
The particular episode in question, where Titchmarsh visits the 17th-century Hatfield House in Hertfordshire in 2010 to look at the key design features of the stately home’s garden, has been shown several times in North Korea.
According to a BBC description, the programme reflects a time when “horticulture and architecture worked seamlessly together” and Titchmarsh “examines the famous parterres, which are some of the first examples of Britain’s affection for formal gardening”. He also offers a tip on “stepover apple trees”.
Quite how it caught the eye of North Korean state TV planners is unknown. In general, foreign input is restricted to sports footage of world-famous events like Wimbledon, many months after they have been held so that scenes of crowds of fans can be vetted for any subversive messaging.
When the broadcaster first learned in 2022 of his fame in the pariah state, he said he was stunned.
“I never imagined that my programmes would reach North Korea, but hopefully the calming nature of British gardening will be well received there,” he said.