Biography

He was awarded the M.B.E. (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honours List for his services to gardening and broadcasting.

He has two daughters: Polly (born 1980) and Camilla (born 1982).

His favorite film is Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

His favorite Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is "Jesus Christ Superstar".

He was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society Victoria Medal of Honour in 2003.

Only ask questions that you really want to know the answer to. It's obvious when a chat-show host is only in it for his or her own exposure. Hollywood stars can be uneasy at the beginning. But I have found that if you lean forward and look directly at them, they come around. It's like tomcats stalking each other. You size each other up and then get the measure of each other. I want to give the viewer an engaging watch. That's why I threw John McCririck off the show (The Alan Titchmarsh Show (2007)) recently - he was being rude and unpleasant to another guest. As often as not, the guest won't reveal a huge secret but I want to hold them for examination, to gain a fresh or different insight. You want to be engaged and enlightened. You know that when you ask: "And what of the future?" there's nothing more to be asked. Also, if you are a fan of the guest, do not be sycophantic. Tony Benn and Alan Bennett are wonderful guests - they know that the key to being a guest is not to play the "You're lucky to have me" card, but rather just to be entertaining and informed, to tell us something new.

I don't think I've ever been so offended as I was by Jon Snow talking about Poppy Fascism and I think he spoke for very few people when he talked about that. I think most of us support tremendously the Poppy Appeal and also the fact that it seems to us even more relevant today - as relevant certainly - as it was.

[in 2010] I've always loved music hall. I've done it for fun. You know, like some people go fishing, I've got some mates and we do music hall, and we've done it for about 30-odd years.

People say, "Who do you want to interview?" and I always say, "Maggie Smith" but then, as she doesn't like doing interviews, it probably wouldn't go well. But I've always been an enormous fan.

What was very interesting to me was that enormous amount of celebrities who came out to support Tony Blair before he got in for New Labour, who then disappeared into the woodwork entirely when they got into government. That's very curious.