Frances Tophill has ruled herself out of the race to succeed Monty Don on Gardeners' World, saying she does not envisage taking over when he eventually steps down. The 36-year-old, who has been on the programme for more than a decade, said she has too much respect for Don and too much love for being in the garden itself to want his job.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Tophill said Don’s role is a generous one and that she hopes he never leaves. She added that broadcasting is not her day job and that her work is as a gardener, a line that cuts against the steady speculation that has followed her for years as one of the names often mentioned as a possible successor. Don turned 70 this year, which has only sharpened the questions around what comes next for the long-running series.
Tophill said a 2023 episode in which she stood in for Don gave her a brief sense of the pressure that comes with fronting the show. “That’s when I got a glimpse of what being Monty must be like... I don’t want that,” she said. In another observation about Don’s eye for detail, she said, “Everyone keeps saying that he’s so detail focused that he’ll notice all the tiny things,” adding that, on the programme, “He hides it in the stumpery for the gardeners to find.”
The comments come as Tophill is also busy with another high-profile assignment: creating a garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show alongside Alan Titchmarsh, Sir David Beckham and King Charles. In an official statement on the King’s Foundation website, she said she was excited to share her first garden for the event and that it had been shaped by ideas from the King, Titchmarsh and Beckham.
Tophill said the Chelsea project has been designed around sustainability, with no man-made materials and a concrete-free construction. That detail mirrors the way she framed her own work in gardening rather than broadcasting, even as her name remains tied to the future of one of television gardening’s most recognisable jobs. For now, the message is clear: she is not angling for Don’s chair, and the handover many have speculated about is not one she sees herself making.
