Charlie Dimmock

Last updated

Charlie Dimmock
Born
Charlotte Elouise Dimmock

(1966-08-10) 10 August 1966 (age 58)
Education The Mountbatten School
Cannington Horticultural college
Occupations
Employers
Height5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)

Charlotte Elouise Dimmock (born 10 August 1966) is an English gardening expert and television presenter. She was a member of the team on Ground Force , a BBC gardening makeover programme, airing from 1997 to 2005.

Contents

Since then, Dimmock has presented numerous TV shows in the UK and US, including The Joy of Gardening, Charlie's Garden Army and most recently Garden Rescue.

Early life and education

Dimmock attended Wellow Primary School and the Mountbatten School in Romsey, Hampshire. Her father Terry was a merchant seaman, and her mother Sue ran her own clothes shop. [1]

Dimmock's love of gardening began at an early age – she enjoyed spending time in the garden as a child (gravitating towards the family pond), and helping her grandfather in his vegetable patch. At junior school she had gardening lessons through the spring and summer terms. As a teenager, Dimmock had a weekend and holiday job at a local garden centre called Mill Water Gardens in Romsey, managed By Tim Bath of Romsey. [2]

When she was at school, Dimmock initially planned to specialise in forensic science, but changed her mind and studied horticulture. [3] Dimmock trained as an amenity horticulturalist at Winchester and in Somerset, graduating with a BTEC Diploma in Amenity Horticulture, attaining a distinction, and a National Technical Certificate in Turf Culture and Sporting Management. [4] She spent a year of this training at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. [5]

After college, Dimmock joined Romsey Garden Centre. It was here that she met TV producer John Thornicroft, who later produced Ground Force . [3]

Television career

Dimmock first came to the public's attention in 1997, when she joined the BBC gardening series Ground Force, five years after first meeting the producer/director of the series when she built a pond for the Meridian series, Grass Roots. [6] Dimmock co-presented Ground Force for the eight years it aired. [7]

Since then, Dimmock has presented such programmes as The Joy of Gardening and Charlie's Garden Army, as well as presenting coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show. [8] In 2004, she appeared in the Channel 4 reality TV show, The Games . She has also appeared on American television, presenting a gardening slot on The Early Show on CBS. [9] In September 2006, she appeared on the BBC's Celebrity MasterChef . [10]

Dimmock made a cameo appearance as herself in the British soap opera Hollyoaks in August 2002, acting as a special guest booked by character Gordon Cunningham to unveil the "Jubilee Gardens". [11]

During the mid-2000s, after Ground Force had ceased production, she presented a local ITV Meridian series entitled River Walks, in which she walked along various rivers in Southern England, visiting landmarks and attractions along the way as well as meeting people who live and work on the rivers.[ citation needed ]

Dimmock was President of the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) from 2003 to 2004 and presented their annual awards ceremony that year.[ citation needed ] In 2011, she joined the team of experts on ITV's Daybreak breakfast magazine show acting as gardening expert.[ citation needed ] In 2013, she presented an episode of The Great British Garden Revival .

In July 2016, Dimmock became a member of the team presenting Garden Rescue, a series on garden transformations produced for the BBC by Spun Gold TV. [12] [13]

Other projects

Dimmock has written several gardening books, including the BBC Ground Force books Water Garden Workbook and Container Gardening, as well as Enjoy Your Garden, a book on general gardening published in 2000. Dimmock wrote a weekly gardening column in the Mail on Sunday for many years, until January 2008.[ citation needed ]

Dimmock appeared in pantomime over Christmas 2011 at The Spa in Bridlington playing the Organic Fairy in Jack and the Beanstalk: she reprised the role in December 2012 at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield. [14]

Dimmock launched her In the Garden range of gardening equipment with the retail chain Poundland on 29 February 2016. [2] She expanded her range in 2017. [15]

Multiple flowers have been named after Charlie Dimmock, including the apricot orange Dahlia'Charlie Dimmock' [16] and cherry red/silvery pink Charlie's Rose. [17]

Personal life

Dimmock's mother Sue Kennedy, 59, and her stepfather Rob, 58, both died in the 2004 tsunami caused by an Indian Ocean earthquake while they were holidaying in Thailand. [18] [19]

Charity work

In 2003, Dimmock competed in the Macmillan 4x4 UK Challenge charity event, raising the profile of the event considerably, which has gone on to raise over £100,000 each year for Macmillan Cancer Support. [20]

Dimmock has also been involved in many other charity works, such as Dreamflight, a charity organisation backed by British Airways for children with serious illnesses, that takes them to Florida, United States, for a "holiday of a lifetime". [21]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romsey</span> Town in Hampshire, England

Romsey is a town in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The town is situated 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Southampton, 11 miles (18 km) southwest of Winchester and 17 miles (27 km) southeast of Salisbury. It sits on the outskirts of the New Forest, just over 3 miles (4.8 km) northeast of its eastern edge. The population of Romsey was 14,768 at the 2011 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Titchmarsh</span> British gardener, broadcaster, and writer (born 1949)

Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE is an English gardener and broadcaster. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he became a writer, and a radio and television presenter.

Ground Force is a British garden makeover television series originally broadcast by the BBC between 1997 and 2005. The series was originally hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Wilde</span> English pop singer (born 1960)

Kim Wilde is an English pop singer. She first gained success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female solo artist. In 1986, she had a UK No. 2 hit with a reworked version of the Supremes' song "You Keep Me Hangin' On", which also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. Between 1981 and 1996, she had 25 singles that charted within the Top 50 of the UK Singles Chart. Her other hits include "Chequered Love" (1981), "You Came" (1988), and "Never Trust a Stranger" (1988). In 2003, she collaborated with Nena on the song "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime", which topped the Dutch and Austrian charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diarmuid Gavin</span> Irish garden designer and television personality

Diarmuid Gavin is an Irish garden designer and television personality. He has presented gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show on nine occasions from 1995 to 2016, winning a number of medals, including gold in 2011. He has also authored or co-authored at least ten gardening-related books.

Amateur Gardening is a British fornightly magazine dedicated to gardening. It included news, advice, feature articles, and celebrity columns and interviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Walsh (builder)</span> English TV presenter and celebrity builder

Tommy Walsh is an English television personality, presenter and celebrity builder best known for the gardening and do-it-yourself television shows Ground Force (1997–2005) and Challenge Tommy Walsh (2002–2005).

<i>Gardeners World</i> British TV gardening programme (since 1968)

Gardeners' World is a long-running British gardening programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1968. The 2024 series is the 55th. Its first series was presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Up until 2020 most of its episodes have been 30 minutes in duration; however, this changed in spring 2020 when the format was extended to an hour. All episodes in the 2021 series onwards follow this 60-minute format. Gardeners' World currently airs between mid-March and late October on BBC Two every Friday. The programme usually takes a four-month winter break from November to February.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Klein</span> English gardening expert and TV presenter

Carol Ann Klein is an English gardening expert, who also works as a television presenter and newspaper columnist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Willis</span> English television presenter and former model

Emma Louise Willis is an English broadcaster. She is known for her television and radio work with Channel 5, BBC, ITV and Heart FM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel de Thame</span> British gardener and television presenter

Rachel de Thame is an English gardener, television presenter and actress.

Marian Foster is an English television and radio presenter. She is best known for presenting BBC One's Pebble Mill at One from 1972 to 1986 and currently Garden Mania on BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees.

Christopher Paul Beardshaw is a British garden designer, plantsman, author, speaker, and broadcaster.

Matt James is a British garden designer, horticulturist and university lecturer who rose to fame on the TV programme The City Gardener which was shown on the UK's Channel 4. Originally from Essex, he now resides with his wife and children in Cornwall.

Christine Helen Walkden is a British television presenter and gardener, best known for her appearances on gardening programmes and The One Show. She has hosted her own series centred on her home garden in Sawbridgeworth, Christine's Garden, on the BBC.

Really is a British free-to-air digital television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel launched on 19 May 2009 as UKTV's channel for female audiences. The channel shows a mixture of lifestyle, medical, real life, crime and paranormal programming. It is available on satellite through Sky and Freesat, cable through Virgin Media and also on digital terrestrial provider Freeview.

<i>Great British Garden Revival</i> Television series

Great British Garden Revival is a British documentary television series that was first broadcast on BBC Two on 9 December 2013. The series was presented by Monty Don, Carol Klein, Joe Swift, Rachel De Thame, James Wong, Tom Hart Dyke, Chris Beardshaw, Alys Fowler, Charlie Dimmock, Diarmuid Gavin, Christine Walkden, Toby Buckland, Sarah Raven and Matt James. Each episode shows two presenters focusing on an endangered part of gardens.

Dannahue Barrington Clarke is a British horticulturist who co-hosts the BBC series The Instant Gardener with Helen Skelton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HGTV (British and Irish TV channel)</span> Television channel about homes and gardens

HGTV is a British free-to-air interior home and garden-orientated lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel originally launched on 1 November 1997 as UK Style and then was rebranded to Home on 30 April 2009 and was rebranded to its current form on 21 January 2020. HGTV is broadcast 24 hours a day on Sky. UK Style was transmitted by terrestrial provider ITV Digital 24 hours a day until the company's collapse in 2002. After a slight rebrand to UKTV Style, the channel made a return to terrestrial screens for a time in the mid-2000s as part of the now-defunct Top Up TV system. Before 2016, HGTV was a pay channel. Home became available as a free-to-air linear service on Freeview from 1 March 2016.

Arit Anderson is a British garden designer, writer, and television presenter. She has presented on the BBC show Gardeners World and the BBC One show Garden Rescue.

References

  1. "Charlie Dimmock". Hello! magazine. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  2. 1 2 February 2016, Lucy Moore | 16. "Exclusive interview with Charlie Dimmock on her new range at Poundland". www.femalefirst.co.uk. Retrieved 31 August 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 Hellomagazine.com. "Charlie Dimmock. Biography, news, photos and videos". Hello. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  4. "Charlie Dimmock | Gardening Experts at Gardening Direct". www.gardeningdirect.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  5. Echo, Liverpool (16 January 2009). "The Celebrities at Home and Garden Show". liverpoolecho. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  6. Meet Charlie Dimmock UKTV article. Retrieved 22 June 2010
  7. Chris Roberts (2006). Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme. Thorndike Press. ISBN   0-7862-8517-6.
  8. BBC coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2002 17 April 2002. BBC Press Releases & Press Packs. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
  9. The Early Show - Charlie Dimmock CBS Broadcasting Inc. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
  10. "Meet Charlie Dimmock" Archived 8 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine UKTV Style Gardens . Retrieved 28 November 2006.
  11. Official Hollyoaks Website, 6 August 2002, archived from the original on 19 August 2002, retrieved 2 July 2021
  12. Frost, Caroline (4 July 2016). "Charlie Dimmock Returns To TV Screens With 'Garden Rescue'". HuffPost . Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  13. O'Grady, Sean (9 July 2016). "TV preview: Garden Rescue, BBC1, Monday 3.25pm; Wedding Surprises: Caught on Camera, ITV, Tuesday 9pm". The Independent . Retrieved 13 July 2016.
  14. Bonner, Neil (10 December 2012). "Jack and the Beanstalk review at Pomegranate Chesterfield". The Stage . Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  15. Avis-Riordan, Katie (3 May 2017). "Poundland and Charlie Dimmock have released a new gardening collection and, yes, they're £1 each!". Country Living. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  16. "Dahlia Charlie Dimmock". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  17. Easitill. "CHARLIE'S ROSE (hybrid tea) | Garden Roses | Pococks Roses | The Cornish Rose Company". Garden Roses. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  18. Gardener 'copes' with family loss" BBC News Online , 27 January 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
  19. UK victims of Asian tsunami", BBC News Online , 18 December 2005. Retrieved 23 March 2010
  20. Land Rover World article Macmillan 4x4 UK Challenge 2003
  21. "High Profile Supporters". dreamflight. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2013.