Alan Titchmarch’s trousers censored by North Korea TV
HIS mild-mannered charm and green fingers have made him an unlikely hit in North Korea.
But Alan Titchmarsh’s ‘imperialist’ jeans appear to have fallen foul of the totalitarian state’s censors.
The gardener, 74, had his blue
‘Symbol of US imperialism’
jeans blurred out in an episode of Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets, which aired on Korean Central Television on Monday.
Blue jeans have been banned in the country since the 1990s as former leader Kim Jong-il believed that they were a ‘symbol of American imperialism’. Titchmarsh, who has become a huge hit with North Korean audiences since the series was first broadcast in 2022, told the Mail he was ‘flattered’ his trousers were ‘regarded as subversive’.
He joked about donating them to the Garden Museum in London as ‘being the most censored legwear in the history of horticulture’, adding: ‘I’d never thought of myself as someone who was likely to lead the youth of North Korea astray.’
The bizarre move is thought to be part of a censorship drive by Blurred out: Titchmarsh on his the North Korean regime to crack down on influences of Western fashion, according to the American-based news outlet NK News.
When first broadcast two years ago, Titchmarsh said he was stunned to discover the show had been aired in the secretive authoritarian state.
He told a British newspaper: ‘Hopefully the calming nature of British gardening will be well received there. I just think it’s rather nice that whichever country in the world it is... gardening can bring people together.’
It is not the only BBC show to have made it past the state broadcaster’s censors. Dr Who, Top Gear and Teletubbies are all apparently deemed suitable to be aired in North Korea after a BBC initiative in 2014, backed by the UK Foreign Office, to draw up a list of shows the regime may consider importing.
In 2022, Kim Jong-un banned mullet haircuts and skinny jeans over fears ‘decadent’ Western culture will influence the country’s young people.