BSW Timber plc director of sales Alan Wheat stood up to attacks on the timber trade from Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link and almost made it to the TV programme’s final round.
Mr Wheat appeared on the famous BBC quiz show on November 1 for charity, pledging the prize money to the Timber Trades’ Benevolent Society if he won.
Host Anne Robinson was as rude and aggressive to the contestants as ever and when Mr Wheat revealed he worked for a timber company “selling fresh, beautiful Scottish, English and Welsh timber” she asked if he was responsible for destroying forests.
“When you’ve wiped out all the forests in Scotland, where are you going to move on to then?” she asked.
Mr Wheat responded that the industry preserves rather than wipes out the forest.
“We replant all the trees and everything in the forest is used,” he said. “Timber is the most ecologically friendly product out there and beautiful to boot.”
Ms Robinson in a later round introduced Mr Wheat as the “tree killer”.
He made it to the last three contestants on the show, but was then voted off by his rivals. In his parting comments he said Ms Robinson’s view of the timber trade was “uneducated” and that “she couldn’t see the wood for the trees”.
