Censor those trousers! How Alan Titchmarsh’s legs became TV editors’ latest target

From the Chinese ruling that bans Doctor Who to Australian panic about Peppa Pig, TV has a curious relationship with censorship

I wonder how Alan Titchmarsh feels today. On the one hand, footage has surfaced of him on North Korean state television, which has been rebroadcasting episodes of his BBC series Garden Secrets since at least 2022.

On the other, the North Korean government seems to hate him. Well, part of him. Not only have the North Koreans hacked down each hour-long episode to just 15 minutes, drowning out his speaking voice with a mixture of voiceover and instrumental music in the process, but they have also shamed his legs. Thanks to a government ruling that decries denim jeans as a sign of evil American imperialism, Titchmarsh’s legs are blurred out whenever they are on screen. The effect is that Titchmarsh appears as a benign hovering wizard.

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