Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/26/gardening-legend-alan-titchmarsh-is-a-hit-on-north-korean-tv-but-not-his-jeans.html
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As part of my college Media Studies course, we went to see Alan presenting Pebble Mill (which should age me!)
It was actually a really fun day out, we got to see how live telly was made, and Alan himself was lovely and a consummate professional.
But yeah, he doesn’t make TV that gets the pulse racing.
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He’s wearing Fog Pants, it’s the latest thing.
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They’re so weird.
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So all he need do to un-blur his trousers is to model North Korean (made) jeans…?
(or find a brand still made there?)
Noko Jeans (Korean: 노코진스) was a Swedish fashion company. The company was best known for importing jeans from North Korea. Although the company was not the first to import jeans from North Korea, it was the first company to insist to keep the label ‘Made in North Korea’ on the jeans. The company was founded in 2007 and ceased operations in 2011, however the company continued to post on social media until 2013.
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I was tempted to write to the BBC to protest at it engaging with NK.
But they need all the commercial licensing revenue they can get and they’d only reply with some guff about “it’s better to engage than ignore”.
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Juche, the ideology so fundamentally weak that it fears a pair of dad jeans.
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Fog Pants, go well with Fog Hats.
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North Korean television pirates foreign broadcasts that it wants to show, especially football (soccer).
However, North Korean TV often pirates content from foreign broadcasters, blurring out onscreen logos to hide the original source.
This is often the case with their airing of Premier League, Champions League, and International football.
In 2014, during one of North Korea’s periods of connecting with the West, there were discussions suggesting possibly gifting UK television programmes to the East Asian state as a means of demonstrating so-called “soft-power”.
The Sunday Times revealed in 2014 that BBC Worldwide - the former name of the corporation’s commercial arm BBC Studios - and the Foreign Office were hoping to “open [the North Korean] people’s eyes to the world beyond the closed republic without offending the regime”.
The paper quoted a Whitehall official as saying: "Programmes sent to North Korea would have to be something that isn’t offensive, like Mr Bean, EastEnders, Miss Marple or Poirot.
“You couldn’t send Dad’s Army, as it is about war. But Teletubbies could be an option, or The Good Life, with a bit of gardening and squabbling in the kitchen”.
It’s not known if Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets was part of this package, or even if the programmes were delivered at all.
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If I was still on Reddit, I would submit this to /r/nottheonion
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They might be, who (in North Korea) can say for sure?
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The Beeb needs to send a TV detector van to NK and demand they register for a TV licence! 
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Your misogyny is showing.
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In Civilization V, players defeated in a culture victory will tell you that their people “are now listening to your pop music and buying your blue jeans”. What if that wasn’t meant to be illustrative, but those two things are actually all it takes? North Korea better watch its karaoke!
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Wow, that sounds like a GOP wet dream!
(From the article)
The report also details violations that go beyond consuming foreign media, including “distorting our country’s song or dancing” and “conversation or writing in an unusual way that is not our way.”
This exact statement could come out of so many descriptions of RWNJ local boards or even higher level positions.
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I’m confused by this. It was a frequent topic of conversation when both she and Titmarch made the rounds on panel shows, ala’ Graham Norton at the time. She seemed to regard it as mildly amusing in the way that british media is often greeted with an eyeroll by the subject of whatever ridiculous headline the tabloids are running with that week.
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I assume that comment reflects only an assumption that NK would be likely to censor it.
