In various blogs, newsletters and the like, we been teasing you all for some months.  Not because we wanted to, but because the contract we had with the film company precluded us from saying anything.

But after the programme was broadcast last Tuesday, we can finally reveal that Alan Titchmarsh was here in May filming Nant y Bedd as the “inspirational garden” for an episode of the ITV series Love Your Garden.

For those who haven’t seen the programme, they find deserving people who need a better garden for whatever reason.  The garden in our episode was not far away in Pontypool, where the unfortunate Chris had lost his hands and feet to sepsis.  With a largish garden, three young children and a busy wife, Chris found himself restricted to the small patio outside the back door.  Alan’s team of miracle workers transformed the wilderness, described as “the hardest task we’ve ever taken on” in just one week into something that the kids could enjoy, where his wife could work from home and in which Chris could get his wheelchair to all parts.

We were chosen as the inspirational garden for a number of reasons; we weren’t too far away, we have big slopes, water features, mature trees, sheds, the rope bridge and the treehouse.

After a flurry of e-mails, another Chris, the Director, came to have a look around one Thursday.  They had obviously done a lot of research online as he seemed to know exactly what he was looking for.  Then on the Tuesday following at 9am in rolled Alan Titchmarsh, Series Producer Colin, Director Chris and a cameraman and sound recordist. The weather was magnificent and we were all carefully dressed in our finest with hair neatly styled!  “Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you we don’t feature the garden owners!”  Oh well, never mind. Fortunately no-one thought to mention this ban to Smudge!

One always wonders if TV celebs are the same in real life as they are on screen.  We can report that Alan T is a really lovely man.  Chatting away between takes, reading us a poem he wrote in the car on the way here and telling a few anecdotes about garden owners of, shall we say, a rather higher social status!  He said his wife would also love our garden, but when I suggested he bring her, he said “No way, she’ll want me to transform our garden!”

During a lull to sort out a problem with the camera, he grabbed a stick and stated playing with the boat on the pond.  When offered a chance to go up into the treehouse, which wasn’t quite finished at the time, his response was “Just try and stop me!”  as he disappeared up a very tall ladder. Oh, and whilst waiting to film the opening shot he cried out “a stoat has just run over my foot!”

I did have to give him a ‘telling off’ for running on the bridge – setting a bad example for other visitors.  By the way no ducks were injured in the filming of this sequence – just a little bit surprised!!

Anyway enough of my prattlings, have a look at the clip below – make sure you have the sound on – as he says some really lovely things about Nant y Bedd

If you can, go to the ITV Hub and watch the full programme, but make sure you have a full box of tissues at hand! It was broadcast on Tuesday 22nd October.

Many thanks to Spun Gold TV for allowing us to use the above clip.