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Monty Don reveals the most 'unglamorous' part of the filming Chelsea Flower Show

Photo credit: BBC/Glenn Dearing
Photo credit: BBC/Glenn Dearing

Gardeners' World star Monty Don has admitted to one of the least glamorous parts of his job while filming the Chelsea Flower Show.

Chelsea returns for a historic autumn show after being postponed from May to September as a result of restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Taking place in September (21st - 26th) for the first time in its 108-year history, all the action will be kicking off at SW3, where Monty will be bringing all the news, analysis, and inspirational designs and floral displays to viewers at home.

But the hours spent between filming are not the most enjoyable for gardener and writer Monty, who said there is a welcome change happening behind-the-scenes this year.

'In the BBC compound, tucked between a line of show gardens and the Chelsea embankment, which is like a little village where about 150 people spend up to 18 hours a day, there are apparently to be more but smaller cabins to try and avoid overcrowding,' Monty wrote in Daily Mail's Weekend magazine.

'This I welcome, as one of the less enjoyable aspects of Chelsea for me are the hours I spend between filming, crammed either into a portacabin the size of an average family saloon and shared with up to a dozen other presenters, make-up artists, visiting celebrities and their families, or sitting on a rickety chair in the narrow earthen ‘street’ trying to research for my next interview or item to be filmed, jostled by the constant traffic of researchers, anxious producers, crews looking for something to eat and visitors trying to persuade the security staff that yes, they do have the right pass to be there.

'Glamorous it is not.'

Photo credit: BBC/Glenn Dearing
Photo credit: BBC/Glenn Dearing

For garden lovers unable to visit the show in person, there will be Chelsea 2021 coverage across BBC One and BBC Two, with Monty presenting throughout the week on BBC Two alongside Joe Swift. Nicki Chapman, Angellica Bell and Sophie Raworth complete the main presenting team alongside gardening experts and celebrity guests.

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Photo credit: BBC
Photo credit: BBC

But Monty said that it is 'enormously exciting' for RHS Chelsea to return and stressed that the autumn show was the perfect opportunity to 'slightly reinvent all the possibilities for Chelsea' without harming what makes it unique.

'Who knows? September might prove to be a better time for the show. But then, if you are any sort of gardener, there is never a bad time for Chelsea Flower Show,' he wrote.

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