Titchmarsh's trousers proved too controversial for the authoritarian country's national broadcaster.
There are few images on British television screens as insistent as the image of Alan Titchmarsh kneeling in the soil in some kind of tweed jacket.
Apparently, the 74-year-old gardener is also always in the spotlight in North Korea, so much so that one of his quintessentially British outfits came under scrutiny in a recently aired episode.
North Korea's censorship system is quite strict, especially in the media. The country consistently ranks among the five countries with the lowest media freedom in the world.
A BBC incident appears to have squeezed past the 'prohibited external entertainment' filter garden secrets series in which Titchmarsh provides tips and tricks for upgrading your garden space or growing some fruit and vegetables.
The program is regularly repeated on North Korea Central Television (KCTV), and apparently the North Korean people can't get enough of it.
On Monday, an episode from 2010 was aired, showing Alan planting a fruit tree in the garden of Hatfield House in Hertfordshire.
In typical Titchmarsh fashion, the West Yorkshire native knelt on a garden bed in a plaid shirt and blue jeans.
However, North Korean broadcasters blurred out Titchmarsh's jeans, apparently reflecting the regime's ban on jeans that has been in place since the 1990s.
While wholesome items lend themselves to consumption in North Korea, the country has long had restrictions on Western fashion and trends.
Peter Ward, a senior researcher at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, said blue jeans have been banned in North Korea since at least the early 1990s.
Apparently, the country's former leader Kim Jong Il effectively told citizens that jeans “are absolutely forbidden and people should not wear them under any circumstances.”
However, he said North Korea's practice of “censoring foreigners wearing jeans on television” was unusual because authorities for years had allowed tourists visiting the country to wear almost any Western fashion.
Given their close association with the United States, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea considers jeans “a symbol of U.S. imperialism”
Current leader Kim Jong Un favors bell-bottom pants and is reportedly disgusted by skinny jeans and T-shirts bearing Western symbols that are popular among South Korea's more progressive neighbors.
When Alan Titchmarsh realized in 2022 that he was unusually popular on the other side of the world, he seemed delighted by the news.
talking daily star“I never thought my project would reach North Korea, but hopefully the calming nature of British gardening will be well received there,” he said.
It's unclear how the BBC program found its way to North Korea, given how rare Western programming is.
While access to satellite dishes and the global internet is banned except for a tiny, trusted elite in Pyongyang, foreign media can still enter the country, often via memory cards smuggled across the Chinese border.
It is illegal to own or trade foreign media, and anyone found guilty could face imprisonment, forced labor or even death.
However, North Korean television often pirates content from foreign broadcasters, blurring on-screen logos to hide the original source. This tends to be the case in the Premier League, Champions League and international football.
I wonder if Kim Jong-un will be watching Manchester City play Arsenal this Sunday like the rest of us. He is only human after all.
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