 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Mark Lane | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 27 October 1969 Hertfordshire, England, UK |
| Occupation(s) | Broadcaster, gardener, journalist, author |
| Spouse | Jasen John Cavalli |
Mark Lane is a British television presenter, landscape designer, columnist, radio broadcaster and writer. [1]
Born in Hertfordshire in 1969 [2] he is also a landscape designer, and the UK's first BBC gardening presenter who uses a wheelchair. [3]
Mark was born with spina bifida and, in 2000, he had a car accident that led to operations on his spine. Mark uses a wheelchair full time. [4]
After graduating from University College London in Art History, his career led him to work at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) where he eventually became the Publishing Director. After this, he moved to the Arts publisher Thames & Hudson as Managing Editor.
Mark's love for gardening led him to retrain as a garden designer via an Open Learning course. [5]
Once Mark had retrained, he combined writing [6] for newspapers and gardening magazines. [7]
Mark's break into TV presenting occurred after the BBC saw one of his articles and contacted him to see if he would be interested in presenting. He is now the only disabled presenter on Gardeners' World working alongside Monty Don, Carol Klein, Adam Frost, Jo Swift and Rachel de Thame, and he is the gardening expert on BBC Morning Live' [8]
Mark is a regular presenter at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Shows, namely RHS Chelsea Flower Show, RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival and RHS Tatton Flower Show. Mark is also working with the RHS and Morning Live to create a Feature Garden at Hampton Court Flower Show 2023.
Mark also has his own 2-hour shows every week on QVC and QVC Style. [9]
Mark appeared on BBC Celebrity Mastermind in 2018. His specialist subject was the Life and Works of Piet Mondrian. [10] John Humphrys fielded the tricky questions. Joining Mark on the pre-Christmas ednetwor was broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles, BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan and Celebrity Big Brother winner Courtney Act. Mark raised £3,000 for the charity Leonard Cheshire.
Mark also created the ITV ITV Ident for January 2021 with collage artist Sharon Walters [11]
Mark was a finalist for 'Celebrity of the Year' in the National Diversity Awards 2021. [12] Mark Lane Designs Ltd has also won numerous garden design awards in the UK and overseas and works closely with BALI, [13] RHS and the BBC.
On 17 March, Mark appeared on BBC Comic Relief along with the rest of the BBC Morning Live presenter family to celebrate Gethin Jones's incredible BBC Strictly danceathon for Red Nose. An incredible £1.3 million was raised, the highest amount of any BBC fundraising event.
Mark was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent for his contribution to TV and garden design/horticulture.
Mark's philanthropic work is far reaching. He is Patron of Core Arts, a Trustee for Gardening with Disabilities Trust, [14] an Ambassador for Groundwork, Thrive, Greenfingers, Melanoma Fund, Leonard Cheshire [15] [16] and BALI.
Mark also became a team leader of Disney Marvel Superhero Series in 2023. The mission is simple: to create fun, full-throttle, mass-participation sports events where people with disabilities – AKA Superheroes – call the shots & don't have to worry about cut-off times or equipment restrictions. [17]
Mark lives in Lincolnshire with his civil partner Jasen. [18]
Mark's first book "Royal Gardens of the World" was published in 2020 by Kyle Books.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
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.
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.
RHS Flower Show Tatton Park held at Tatton Park, near Knutsford, Cheshire, first began in 1999 by the Royal Horticultural Society. The show houses the RHS National Flower Bed Competition, Young Designer of the Year Award and a wide range of inspirational show gardens, smaller 'Back to Back' gardens, visionary gardens and a number of marquees displaying prize plants and flora exhibits. Other key features of the show are the floral marquee and plant plaza, the arts and heritage pavilion, and the floral design studio.
Charlotte Elouise Dimmock 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.
The Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH) is awarded to British horticulturists resident in the United Kingdom whom the Royal Horticultural Society Council considers deserving of special honour by the Society.
Joseph Samuel Swift is an English garden designer, journalist and television presenter.
Toby Neale Buckland is an English gardener, TV presenter and author, best known for being the main presenter from 2008 to 2010 of BBC's long running flagship gardening programme Gardeners' World.
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 Garden Mania on BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Radio Tees.
Christopher Paul Beardshaw is a British garden designer, plantsman, author, speaker, and broadcaster.
James Alexander L. S. Wong is a British ethnobotanist, television presenter and garden designer. He is best known for presenting the award-winning series Grow Your Own Drugs and the BBC and PBS series Secrets of Your Food, as well as being a panelist on the Radio 4 series Gardeners' Question Time.
Paul Hervey-Brookes is an multi-award-winning garden designer and plantsman who no longer lives in the Cotswolds, England He lives alone in the Loire Valley in France.
Andy Sturgeon is a British landscape and garden designer, author, journalist, broadcaster and commentator in the international garden design sector.
David Martin Domoney, C Hort. FCI Hort is an English Chartered Horticulturist and celebrity gardener. He co-presents the TV gardening programme Love Your Garden, alongside Alan Titchmarsh, and is the resident gardener on ITV1's This Morning.
Plantify.co.uk is an online plant shop based in Windsor, Berkshire (UK) that sells a wide variety of herbaceous and perennial plants. The plant shop supplies over 3150 plants sourced from small British growers and hosts a Plant Finder encyclopedia and free garden design tool.
Dan Pearson is an English landscape designer, specialising in naturalistic perennial planting.
Thomas Richard Stephen Peregrine Stuart-Smith is an English landscape architect, garden designer and writer. He specialises in making gardens that combine naturalism and modernity.
Matthew Wilson is a garden designer, writer, radio and television broadcaster and lecturer. He is a regular participant on Gardener's Question Time on BBC Radio 4.
Michael Perry is an English celebrity gardener and podcast presenter. He presents a show, Michael Perry’s Garden, on QVC UK, and has appeared on ITV1’s This Morning and Channel 4's Steph's Packed Lunch.
Nick Bailey is a freelance horticulturalist, author, UK television gardening presenter and garden designer. He is a former Head Gardener at The Wicken. In 2010, he became Head Gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden.
