Love Your Home And Garden
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH best ‘ Strictly? MywifesaysIcan’t!’
The Love Your Garden team are back, and this year the ITV show is being spruced up because, as well as transforming gardens with their green fingers, Alan Titchmarsh, Katie Rushworth and co will be tackling the interior of the home, too. Expect to be moved as the breathtaking surprise transformations leave the show’s welldeserving families speechless. You may need some tissues… Presenter and gardener Alan Titchmarsh, 68, is a regular on our TV screens. The unlikely sex symbol and father to two grown-up daughters lives in Hampshire with Alison, his wife of 41 years. So tell us about the revamp of Love Your Garden... We’ve done eight of the usual episodes, but we’ve also done three more, where we transform the house as well. It’s all kinds of things, like knocking walls down and opening up backs of houses. It’s very scary, because it’s their home and their lives, so it’s a lot of trust and a great responsibility. Do you get quite emotional at the big reveal? Always. I’m not that hard-hearted that I’m not affected by people’s stories, which are really quite harrowing and reflect great courage. You do get involved, and it makes you even more determined to do a good job. This year marks Ground Force’s 20th anniversary. Are rumours of a reunion true? I’ve not been approached, so no, as far as I’m aware. I love that we did it when we did it, and it’s unbelievable that it started 20 years ago – it just doesn’t feel like that! But the loveliest thing about it is that it’s remembered with such fondness. Maybe that’s the way to leave it. You’ve said you’d never rule out Strictly Come Dancing. Have the show bosses called? They’re very kind, I’ve been asked several times. But my wife’s told me that my