Alan Titchmarsh - Broadcasting

Broadcasting

His first few television appearances were on the long-running BBC television show Nationwide as a horticulture expert. This led to his being invited to present coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show for BBC television in 1983, something Titchmarsh has now hosted every year up to the present (2011). Titchmarsh also appeared on other BBC shows, such as Breakfast Time and Open Air, again as either a guest presenter or as a gardening expert, providing commentary and answering viewers' questions.

In 1988, Titchmarsh was offered a slot on BBC Radio 2 hosting a gardening show with Gloria Hunniford called House In A Garden. In 1991 he was brought in to host the long-running Pebble Mill at One BBC television talk show, which he did until the show was cancelled in 1996. Also in 1991, he presented a 6-part series in which he followed in the footsteps of the pilgrims, travelling around Britain and Ireland in the process.

The cancellation of Pebble Mill at One in 1996 gave Titchmarsh the opportunity to move back towards his first love, gardening, and he took over as host of another long-running BBC television programme, Gardeners' World in the same year, the show being filmed in his own garden. In 1997, he took gardening to the masses with a popular BBC One television series, Ground Force, in which he and fellow presenters Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh would perform a makeover on a garden, Titchmarsh making full use of his horticultural skills when restocking the lucky gardens featured. The show has travelled as far as the United States and South Africa, where one episode saw the Ground Force team makeover Nelson Mandela's garden.

Staying involved in gardening programmes after Gardeners' World, Titchmarsh has presented two series of How To Be A Gardener, his most recent gardening programme to date.

Away from gardening, Titchmarsh has had spells presenting Songs of Praise, and a series of programmes on BBC Radio 2 in which he played a selection of light classical music, and more recently a BBC nature documentary series, British Isles - A Natural History. In recent years he has done less television and radio and spent more time on his career as a novelist and renewed interest in writing gardening books (see below).

He has appeared in an advertisement for the Yorkshire Tourist Board in a series which included contributions from other Yorkshire-born celebrities including Brian Blessed, Melanie Brown, Darren Gough and Brian Turner, and occasionally does other voiceover work for advertisements. His recent voiceover work has extended to voicing the title character in Gordon the Garden Gnome, a cartoon series for the CBeebies channel. He hosted a follow-up series to British Isles - A Natural History entitled The Nature of Britain focusing on British plant and animal species. The series was broadcast in autumn 2007.

Other recent work included hosting a special edition of the Antiques Roadshow, entitled the 20th Century Roadshow, which focused on modern collectibles, performing in the Children's Party At The Palace for the Queen's 80th birthday, and being guest host of The Paul O'Grady Show while O'Grady was off for medical reasons. In January 2006, Titchmarsh was given a permanent slot on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday evenings with the show named "Melodies for you" consisting of light classical and popular music, following the traditional style of Sunday-night broadcasting on Radio 2. He left Radio 2 in August 2011. From January 2012 he has hosted a Saturday morning show on Classic FM.

Since June 2007, he has been seen as host of The Great British Village Show, in which gardeners and cooks from all over Britain competed to be Britain's best at growing pumpkins, runner beans and tomatoes, and at knitting, baking cakes and making jam. He began his eponymous chat show for ITV, The Alan Titchmarsh Show in September 2007 and also currently presents the ITV1 gardening show Love Your Garden, since June 2011. He is currently featured in the in-store audio promotional material for DIY chain B&Q.

Since branching out from his gardening shows Titchmarsh has earned some criticism for his sycophancy towards the British Royal Family. On 1 June 2012 he presented Elizabeth: Queen, Wife, Mother and was castigated the following day for his obsequiousness in a review by Sam Wollaston for The Guardian.