Desert Island Discs Revisited

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Factual: Life Stories

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Desert Island Discs Revisited: Gardeners: Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Titchmarsh

Gardeners

Desert Island Discs

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Desert Island Discs Revisited, Gardeners, Alan Titchmarsh

Gardener, writer and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Burton to Blackbird. Gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2002.

Broadcaster, author and gardener Alan Titchmarsh castaway by Sue Lawley.

Alan was drawn to gardening from an early age in Ilkley, Yorkshire, making his first polythene greenhouse at the age of 12 and deciding he was going to be a gardener when he grew up. 

He left school at 15 and became an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department of Ilkley Urban District Council, going on to horticultural college at the age of 18. His interest in English literature and writing prompted him to apply for a job as assistant editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing and he began to write gardening books of his own, publishing his first in 1976.

Alan experienced his first taste of TV when there was a plague of greenfly on the south coast and he was approached to report on it in Margate for Nationwide. He says, "I suddenly tasted blood. It was wow!, I like this. I want to do more." 

He became a presenter of BBC 1's Daytime Live, a Birmingham-based chat show, interviewing stars like Placido Domingo, Barry Manilow and Julia Roberts. 

He also presented Songs of Praise but never forgot his gardening, and took to the screens as a gardener with the amazingly successful garden make-over programme, Ground Force, in 1997. 

As well as presenting the more 'serious' gardening programme, Gardener's World, Alan recently took viewers back to basics with the series How to be a Gardener and, having written a grand total of 37 gardening books, he remains the UK's premier gardener.

DISC ONE: Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending
DISC TWO: Band of the Royal Marines, conducted by Lt Col P Neville - AC Green's Sunset
DISC THREE: Richard Burton - Finale Ultimo (from Camelot soundtrack) 
DISC FOUR: Benjamin Rayson, Teri Ralston, Beth Fowler - Stephen Sondheim's Remember 
DISC FIVE: Pat Metheny and the London Orchestra - Always and Forever
DISC SIX: Jane Eaglen - Weep You No More Sad Fountains 
DISC SEVEN: London Symphony Orchestra, conduced by R Hickox - Hubert Parry's I Was Glad
DISC EIGHT: Evening song of a blackbird  

BOOK CHOICE: One of the Blandings novels by P G Wodehouse  
LUXURY CHOICE: A box of watercolours   
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2002.

Desert Island Discs Revisited: Gardeners

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Gardening castaways share their desert island choices.

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