She’s among the nation’s favourite gardeners, and Charlie Dimmock has given a rare insight into her future in television in an interview on Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Weekend.
Charlie and Alan’s reunion came as something of a surprise for some.
The pair first appeared on TV screens together 27 years ago, and haven’t worked together for large swathes of the interim period.
However, it didn’t mark the beginning something bigger. Alan has since made it clear that Ground Force was of its time, and needn’t be resurrected. A fully fledged Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh reunion is not on the cards.
Charlie Dimmock has love–hate relationship with television
During an episode of Alan Titchmarsh’s show Love Your Weekend, which aired on December 29, 2024, Charlie Dimmock and her former co-presenter got introspective about the role of television in their lives – and spoke about the future.
“What I admired about you was that you were so philosophical about television,” Alan told Charlie, alongside Ground Force co-host from 1997 until 2002. That was the year he left the show. Charlie continued to run it for three years before bidding it farewell.
“It was not the be-all and end all of your life,” he went on. “You knew it would be transitory, you thought it would be but you were wrong.
“But you thought, it’s nice it’s happening now, you never got your head turned.”
Charlie replied by saying simply: “We are gardeners.”
“We are basically down to earth, aren’t we? It is what it is and you’ve got to carry on.”
But here’s the rub. Alan then asked Charlie if she wants to carry on – with television. Does she enjoy it?
“Yes and no,” she told him. “I don’t know. I do love it but I hate it at the same time.”
“Because it gets in the way of life?” Alan asked in response.
“It gets in the way of different things,” Charlie told him. “Stuff like that.”
Charlie has a life outside of TV and wants to keep it that way
Dimmock took an 11-year break from television, starting in 2005 when she and Tommy Walsh stopped presenting Ground Force together and ending in 2016, with the launch of Garden Rescue.
Aside from TV work, she has written several gardening books. She wrote a weekly gardening column in the Mail on Sunday for many years, ending in 2008.
She’s done pantomime and charity work, and launched a range of gardening equipment with retail chain Poundland in 2016.
“I had always been doing other things [besides working in televisions],” she told Radio Times when she returned to the small screen with Garden Rescue.
“Ground Force ran its course. It was of its time. It was good fun, very enjoyable, and it had its run.”
How does she fill her downtime?
“Just like everyone else,” she told Alan in their Love Your Weekend interview. “Family and friends.”
“Christmas for me is family and friends. I don’t believe anyone goes off and does bizarre, weird things at Christmas,” she added. “At the end of the day, you want to be with your mates and your family and friends.”
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