World
North Korea censors Alan Titchmarsh’s trousers on BBC gardening show
North Korea’s state TV channel has censored Alan Titchmarsh’s trousers.
On Monday, Korean Central Television was showing an episode of the 2010 BBC series of Gardening Secrets, featuring the famous gardener and broadcaster.
The show was said to be a condensed version of the original, and at one point broadcasters blurred out Mr Titchmarsh’s jeans.
In the scene Mr Titchmarsh is kneeling in a garden, tending to plants, when the blurred effect is applied to his legs.
It doesn’t hide the fact he’s wearing trousers, just obscures them. The BBC first revealed the move.
The censoring is said to be linked to Kim Jong Un’s regime’s efforts to restrict Western fashion and culture in North Korea, NKNews reports.
Blue jeans are said to be a sign of the West, according to the outlet, and have been essentially banned since the 1990s.
This is despite the country briefly exporting designer jeans to Sweden.
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It isn’t clear how North Korea got hold of the TV show but the country has a history of illegally pirating neutral content like football matches and other TV shows.