CHARLIE’S BACK!
GARDEN RESCUE
She may be turning 50 next month but Charlie Dimmock is preparing to make a shock return to TV as she fronts a new gardening makeover show – 11 years after Ground Force was axed.
Charlie rose to huge fame in the late 1990s as the only female presenter on the famous gardening series, alongside Alan Titchmarsh and Tommy Walsh.
After the programme was axed in 2005 when ratings started to dwindle, Charlie took a break from mainstream TV but now the affable, gregarious presenter is back with a brand new garden makeover show that sees her compete with Harry and David Rich – the gardening siblings who won gold at the Chelsea Flower Show – to see which of their designs a member of the public will choose for a real-life transformation.
“It’s great to be doing this show and I have enjoyed it so much,” admits Charlie.
“We get given a brief and then come up with a design and they tell us what things they must have – say, a trampoline. It is a bit different to Ground Force. This is more real. We also have different budgets as they are paying for the materials, and it really made us have to think, especially on the slimmer side of the budget. It’s been great fun and we’ve had lots of laughs.”
So what are her new male sidekicks like?
“Oh gosh, the boys are
“We used to have to get paint mixed. Nowthere is a stone effect spray!”
proper architects!” she replies. “I am a gardener that can scribble a design. And they make me feel old!
“Our tastes are so different. They will say ‘Why
have you chosen those plants? It’s not something we would choose!’ Their garden looks like Chelsea – sleek and elegant. They are very cool and trendy. I am more traditional.”
still as passionate about gardening as she was in the Ground Force days, Charlie says she has found herself getting very moved by some of the stories of the people whose dowdy gardens they have helped transform.
From the family who lost their son and had fallen out of love with their garden to another couple who found their garden had been hit by a landslide, Charlie and the rich Brothers have worked around the clock to make sure they deliver great results.
“For me, it has been so great to see the designs being built. That has been really satisfying.”
But does she feel under pressure? The answer is a resounding no.
“The TV side of things has been fine,” she says. “It’s good fun to be back.
“Things have changed though. There is a lot more choice now. We used to have to get the blue paint mixed on Ground Force. now there is even a stone-effect air spray!” Charlie says she is at her happiest when she is in her garden. The land in front of her house is like a meadow, she reveals, with adders and slow worms in it, while her back garden is crammed with plants.
“I have only just about been lucky to have time to cut the grass while I have been filming this,” she chuckles.
Charlie is optimistic that viewers will take the show to their hearts.
“There are some great stories and it’s all about the journey we go on,” she adds.
“We plant the seeds and plants ready to develop over the seasons. It’s not like Ground Force where we tended to have plants straight away and they were very big on the visuals, but there are lots of tips for viewers and I cannot wait for it to start.”
Charlie Dimmock and the Rich Brothers’ new gardening show starts on BBC1 soon.