Alan Titchmarsh biography
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Alan Titchmarsh filmography

[h3]Born and raised on the edge of the beautiful, wild and expansive Ilkley Moore in Yorkshire, Titchmarsh developed his love of gardening at a young age. [/h3]

He was about ten-years-old when he began growing plants in the family’s back garden and soon realised that this was something he wanted to pursue as a profession.

He went to Ilkley County Secondary School, leaving in 1964 at age fifteen to become an apprentice gardener at his local nursery, which was part of the Parks Department. He remained there for four years and his interest in plants grew. In 1972, he enrolled full time at the Shipley Art and Technology Institute to study a City and Guilds course in Horticulture. Following that, he studied at Hertfordshire College of Agriculture for his National Certificate in Horticulture. He then gained a Diploma in Horticulture at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London. Staying on at Kew after his graduation, he was employed as a supervisor and also became involved in staff training.

Accepting the job of Assistant Editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing, Titchmarsh left Kew Gardens and became a horticultural journalist in 1974. He then moved in 1976 to Amateur Publishing, as Assistant Editor and Department Editor of Amateur Gardening magazine. In 1979, Titchmarsh decided to start working for himself and, leaving Amateur Publishing, he began work as a freelance writer and broadcaster, which he does to this day.

Working extensively in radio and television, as a gardening expert, interviewer and presenter, he has had lengthy partnerships with BBC TV and BBC Radio 2. He began working on BBC Radio 2 in 1988, as co-host with Gloria Hunniford of the gardening show ‘House in a Garden’ and went on to host programmes such as ‘Points of View’; talk show ‘Pebble Mill’ (1991 to 1996); ‘Songs of Praise’, where he played a selection of light classical music; ‘Titchmarsh’s Travels’; ‘The BBC Proms’ and ‘Ask the Family’.

Titchmarch’s first appearance on television was as a horticultural expert on BBC’s show ‘Nationwide’, which he thoroughly enjoyed and was duly ‘bitten by the television bug’. He began presenting BBC’s annual coverage of The Chelsea Flower Show in 1983 and does so to the present day. He also made appearances on other BBC shows such as ‘Breakfast Time’ and ‘Open Air’.
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Beginning in 1996, Titchmarsh hosted BBC’s ‘Gardener’s World’ for seven years, from his own garden in Barleywood, Hampshire. In 1997, he joined [urlnew=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_home/2145:0/Charlie_Dimmock.htm]Charlie Dimmock[/urlnew] and Tommy Walsh to make up the ‘Ground Force’ team. The extremely popular BBC1 programme, which had 12 million viewers at its peak, involved garden ‘make-overs’ for people, including one for [urlnew=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biography_home/165:0/Nelson_Mandela.htm]Nelson Mandela[/urlnew] in South Africa. In 1999, he played the role of Adam Titchmarsh in ‘The Victoria Wood Special – Wetty Hainthrop Investigates’ (1999), starring Victoria Wood, Julie Walters and Duncan Preston, which was a spoof on the BBC1 mystery drama ‘Hetty Wainthrop Investigates’.

Titchmarsh presented ‘The Royal Gardeners’, a show that traced the influence the kings and queens of England have had on gardening styles, from the Norman Conquest to the present day. He hosted a number of other shows, including BBC’s ‘British Isles: A Natural History’ in 2004; a special edition of the ‘Antiques Roadshow’ titled ‘20th Century Road Show’, about modern collectable items, in 2005; and two series of ‘How to be a Gardener’, his most recent show. Titchmarsh performed in The Children’s Party At The Palace for Her Majesty’s 80th Birthday and was guest host of ‘The Paul O’Grady Show’, standing in for O’Grady when he was booked off for medical reasons.

Titchmarsh has also appeared in an advert for the Yorkshire Tourist Board and been involved in voice over work for other adverts. More recently, he provided the voice of Gordon in ‘Gordon the Garden Gnome’, a CBeebies channel cartoon series. He is host of a follow up series to ‘British Isles: A Natural History’, called ‘Nature of Britain’, which focuses on British plant and animal life. Due to be filmed in 2005 and 2006, the transmission date is yet to be announced.

An accomplished journalist, he has been a regular columnist for the BBC Gardener’s World magazine, writes a weekly column for the Radio Times magazine and is gardening correspondent for the Daily Express and Sunday Express. Titchmarsh has also expressed his love of plants in almost 40 gardening books, including the fastest selling gardening book ever, ‘How to be a Gardener Book 1: The Basics’ (2002), which topped the best seller lists for nearly a year.

His first five novels were also best sellers: ‘Mr MacGregor’ (1998), ‘The Last Lighthouse Keeper’ (1999), ‘Animal Instincts’ (2000), ‘Only Dad’ (2001) and ‘Rosie’ (2004). His sixth and latest novel, ‘Love and Dr. Devon’ published in August 2006, is already making headway on the bestseller list. Titchmarsh has also made forays into writing his memoirs. His first volume, ‘Trowel and Error’ (2002), sold over 200,000 copies in hardback and his second, ‘Nobbut a Lad: A Yorkshire Childhood’, published in Oct 2006 is sure to follow suit.
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His enormous passion for plants, coupled with his affable nature and obvious expertise in the field of Horticulture, has brought Titchmarsh notable and deserved accolades. In 1985 he won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show for his country kitchen garden. He has twice been named Gardening Writer of the Year and for four successive years, was voted Television Personality of the Year by the Garden Writers Guild. In 1997 he was named Yorkshireman of the Year. He received the award of Honorary Doctor of the University from Essex University in 1999, Honorary Doctor of Science from Bradford University in 2002 and Honorary Doctor of Science from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2005.

In 2000, Titchmarsh was appointed MBE in the Queen’s Millennium New Year Honours List for his services to horticulture and broadcasting. He was made Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire in 2001. In 2004, he was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Victorian Medal of Honour, its highest accolade, and he also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Garden Writers Guild, an honour granted to no more than 63 people at any one time. He is a Freeman of the City of London and his waxwork model stands in Madame Tussaud’s.

Popular and respected by audiences, Titchmarsh is a versatile man, relaxed and charming at all times. He is happily married to his wife Alison, they were wed on 26 July 1975 and have two daughters, Polly (b. 1980) and Camilla (b. 1982). The family home is a beautiful old farmhouse named Oaklands, set on two acres of land in Hampshire, England and is home to many pets, including dogs, cats, ducks, goldfish, chickens and other livestock. Titchmarsh also keeps a second home on the Isle of Wight, where he has his boat and likes to do most of his writing. He is a practising Christian and attends church every Sunday.

Patron and president of more than 30 charities, he is trustee of his own charity, Gardens for Schools, which helps with the funding of gardens and green spaces in and surrounding primary schools. Seeds for Africa, another charity of which he is trustee, is involved in encouraging sustainable vegetable gardening by providing communities with the seeds and tools, as well as the training required for starting their own vegetable gardens. The charity also prepares the land and provides water installation. His charitable work with wildlife includes being Vice President of Butterfly Conservation and he is a supporter of The Wildlife Trusts. In line with his love of boating, Titchmarsh is patron of the Cowes RNLI lifeboat and a trustee of the National Maritime Museum.

Carey Latimore
Alan Titchmarsh biography



- Two anagrams of ‘Alan Titchmarsh’ are: ‘that snail charm’ and ‘thrash calamint’ [calamint is an aromatic plant of the mint family, also called basil thyme].

- Has lectured Her Majesty The Queen at a Woman’s Institute meeting.

- His waxwork model at Madame Tussaud’s is one of the most frequently fondled.

- September 2006 saw him voted number 50 in ITV’s ‘TV’s 50 Greatest Stars’.
Alan Titchmarsh biography



As Actor

The Children’s Party at the Palace (2006) (TV)

Gordon the Garden Gnome (2005) (TV series)

Sweet Inspiration (1993) (TV series)

As Writer

How to Be a Gardener (2002) (TV series)
Alan Titchmarsh biography