North Korea’s state TV channel has censored a BBC gardening show by blurring Island resident and gardening presenter Alan Titchmarsh’s jeans.

Korean Central Television (KCTV) aired a 2010 episode of Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets recently.

During the episode footage of the British broadcaster, who has had a home on the Isle of Wight for more than 20 years, was obscured from the waist down as he knelt in a garden bed tending to plants.

Read more: Alan Titchmarsh delighted by success of Isle of Wight TV series

Why did North Korea censor Alan Titchmarsh's trousers?

The reason for the censorship of Titchmarsh's trousers is because he is wearing jeans which are seen as a symbol of Western imperialism and are banned under the North Korean regime.

Jeans have been prohibited in North Korea since the 1990s when leader Kim Jong-il declared them to be a symbol of Western, and specifically US, imperialism, which had no place in a socialist state, according to Seoul-based outlet NK News.

Titchmarsh told the BBC that news of the censorship of his trousers had given him “a bit of street cred”.

He said: “It’s taken me to reach the age of 74 to be regarded in the same sort of breath as Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart.

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“You know, wearing trousers that are generally considered by those of us of a sensitive disposition to be rather too tight.”

He said that his jeans were not too tight but were not acceptable in North Korea.

He added: “I’ve never seen myself as a dangerous subversive imperialist. I’m generally regarded as rather cosy and pretty harmless, so actually, it’s given me a bit of street cred, really, hasn’t it?”