‘I spent too much time focusing on work’

TV presenter Angela Scanlon, 37, lives in London with her husband, Roy Horgan, and their three-year-old daughter Ruby

Why did you start the podcast, Thanks A Million?

It started as a passion project. Gratitude is the one thing that can change the way I feel quickly and dramatically. I thought if I did a podcast around it, then I’ll have to practise it. I wanted to explore the power of gratitude with other people. Sometimes it seems like some people have it all sorted, but when you drill it down, we’re all the same and we need to remind ourselves that the little things are the big things, really. My greatest fear is having forgotten to live life.

Have you struggled with slowing down in the past? I’ve spent an awful lot of time with my focus being on work and striving to tick things off a list – never really relishing or recognising the things that I had done or achieved. And I realised I wasn’t looking in the right place. I laugh that a government-imposed lockdown was the only thing that stopped me from working. In being forced to slow down, I was able to get in touch with the things that are most important. That’s not to say it hasn’t been miserable, frightening and awful in parts, but if you can try and be grateful for even the bad times, and the lessons they bring, and embrace all those emotions with the same openness, it means you can feel the good stuff more deeply.

Is being a television presenter your dream job?

I love it. But if I could do it without putting make-up on and getting my hair done, that would be the absolute dream. I feel fortunate to do what I do and work on shows that people seem to connect with. Going into telly was a bit of an accident. It might look easy and glamorous, but just because the rejection and the tears are dealt with privately doesn’t mean that they’re not there.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

A director told me ‘just be yourself’ and it was such a madly profound thing for somebody to say. It sounds so silly now, but it felt like an amazing sense of trust had been handed over to me. I’ve never wanted to simply read an autocue. Of course I do it to greater or lesser effects at times, but I don’t ever want to be just a mouthpiece for somebody else’s brain. To be told to ask the question on the card literally makes me feel itchy.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My daughter – and my survival during that period after she was born. For somebody who had been independent and who hadn’t stopped working for a very long time, becoming a mother was a massive shock to the system. It was supposed to be this perfect little bubble and I didn’t feel very much at all. It was the beginning of a long journey. It was scary, but I look back at it with more compassion for myself than I had at the time. My daughter is amazing. She’s funny, sparky and fearless.

She has taught me to be more in the moment and slow down.

Are you constantly inspired by the spaces on Your Home Made Perfect and Your Garden Made Perfect?

Yes! It’s a nightmare for everyone around me. For me, it feels such a privilege to be allowed into people’s sacred spaces. It’s allowing people to be seen, and giving them permission to express their quirks and eccentricities. It’s not just about aesthetics, it’s about something much bigger than that.

✢ Watch Your Garden Made Perfect on BBC2 and iplayer, and listen to Thanks A Million on all podcast providers.

Our passion for plant-hunting took off in Victorian times, when plant collectors were like the Indiana Joneses of the botanical world,

the globe on quests to bring home new plant species. Among these horticultural hunters was the trailblazing artist Marianne North, who, in 1871, embarked on several solo expeditions to countries such as Brazil and Borneo, to paint more than 900 plant species.

Today’s plant hunters are just as passionate, but they track down elusive specimens via plant swaps and specialist nurseries, keeping often-rare specimens in spare rooms and conservatories. These women all have National Plant Collections and are saving plant species that will be invaluable for future generations to enjoy.

‘My husband rolls his eyes when a box arrives with yet more plants!’

to three islands, photographing and

are threatened by habitat loss and climate