From Ditch to Titch
Born and bred on the edge of notoriously green and wild llkley Moor, sometime in 1949, Alan Titchmarsh first started growing things at the tender age of ten out in his parents' back garden. As is often the way with these successful TV types, academia was not exactly Alan's forte and he left school at 15 to embark on an apprenticeship as a gardener in a local nursery. Fortunately, he seemed to be quite good at it and soon bagged some full-time training at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

Big Titch
It was his time at Kew, including a spell as Supervisor of Staff Training, that truly launched Alan's journey towards becoming the Titch we know and love today. Journalism soon followed with a stint as Deputy Editor of Amateur Gardening magazine helping his move into mainstream telly. Before we knew it, he was everywhere! For seven years he was the presenter of Gardeners' World while Ground Force pulled in 12 million viewers at its peak! And don't forget his stint on Pebble Mill in the 90s either. The Titch is, quite simply, huge.

All Alan
Unsurprisingly, Alan has twice been named Gardening Personality of the Year and for four successive years was voted Television Personality of the Year by the Garden Writers Guild. What's more, for someone who left school at such an early age, it hasn't hindered his literacy. He's written more than forty gardening books, including the fastest selling gardening book of all time - "How To Be A Gardener Book 1: The Basics" - which topped the best-seller lists. His memoirs, the memorably titled Trowel And Error, have also sold over 200,000 copies in hardback.

Trowel language
But then there is Alan's move into novels. We're talking fiction, not flora, and success hasn't been quite so forthcoming. In fact, his literary debut "Mr MacGregor" (a truly sordid tale of a handsome TV gardener with 'tousled brown hair' who betrays his long-time partner for a Lycra-clad newsreader...) earned him the Literary Review's Bad Sex Award. In fairness, this was after Sebastian Faulks turned down the honour. On accepting his prize, he told guests at London's Naval and Military Club: "In the face of stiff opposition, I'm glad I came" before adding that, in his part of Yorkshire, sex "is what posh people get their coal in".

The joy of Titch
Alan does well at awards, In 2003, he even made an appearance in Channel 4's 100 Worst Britons We Love To Hate. Inspired by the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons, Alan did well to come 62nd, beating off the likes of Clarkson and Ben Elton. It's not all been ironic awards, though. Miraculously, the Titch was recently voted the second sexiest man on television after George Clooney - a claim seemingly backed up by The Queen when, awarding Alan his MBE in 2000, she apparently said: "You've given a lot of ladies a lot of pleasure".

Mrs Titch
Despite being such a supposed ladies man, it's reported that Alan is happily married to Alison, living in an old farmhouse with a two-acre garden in Hampshire. Their recipe for happiness seems to be working as the pair recently celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. "We met through an amateur opera group in London," recalls Alison, "soon after Alan had come down from Yorkshire to work at Kew. I was dancing and he was singing. We haven't looked back since." Sorry ladies...