The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
‘Old white boys’ are dug in to TV gardening shows, says Quentin
OLD white men dominate gardening in mainstream media, Caroline Quentin has claimed.
The actress and presenter, best known for her appearance in
recently brought out a gardening book to capitalise on becoming an “influencer”.
Quentin, 63, has amassed more than 150,000 followers on Instagram where she posts pictures from her 35-acre garden near Exmoor.
She has now revealed she would love to host her own gardening show but claims it is a male-dominated industry and her dream will “probably” never materialise.
“I’d love to host a gardening show, but the old white boys still own that space,” she told
They’ll be replaced at some point by a different generation, which I’m very pleased about, but it probably means I’m not going to get the show I’d like.”
Contrary to Quentin’s claims, Britain is home to several female gardening show hosts including Rachel de Thame and Advolly Richmond, who regularly present BBC’s alongside Monty Don. Frances Tophill and Carol Klein are also among the show’s female presenter line-up.
Quentin said after years of suffering from imposter syndrome she has developed a new confidence and so would now jump at the chance to branch out into a new area of TV if it was offered.
“For my entire life, I’ve been plagued by this constant voice in my head that says ‘No, you can’t do that’. I’ve had the makings of about five different novels and I’ve written scripts that have been in drawers for 20 years. I still feel like an imposter a lot of the time, but I’m learning to silence that voice.”
The interview is in the April edition of