2 weeks Ago By Alex Evans
She’s been a fan favourite on BBC’s hit gardening show Garden Rescue helping to transform people’s garden spaces across the UK in recent years but many of us will remember her as the down to earth sex symbol which helped launch Ground Force. Charlie Dimmock has undergone a transformation of her own in recent years - and in her own words, is all the happier for it. The blonde-haired, green fingered BBC presenter rose to fame in the 1990s alongside fellow garden legends Alan Titchmarsh and Tommy Walsh on Ground Force.
Ground Force came to an end in 2005, but Charlie has continued to work on various prominent garden shows, including Garden Rescue, which is broadcast at 3.45pm on BBC One when the series is running, with various episodes still available on the BBC iPlayer. Charlie previously opened up about her weight gain since she first broke onto the TV scene, saying that it was something she has accepted and that she was unhappy with how her body change is seen by fans compared to Alan Titchmarsh’s.
Talking to the Independent in 2016, Charlie said: "I've always been up and down in my weight. I'll never be slim or skinny, let's put it like that. One season I'll be a size 14, then 18, but it's something I've just accepted now.
I'm at that age where I think, life is too short." But since then Charlie has told The Sun how she thinks the reaction to her weight gain is "unfair", pointing to the treatment Alan Titchmarsh gets by comparison. She told The Sun: “It’s horribly unfair.
If Alan Titchmarsh had developed a bit of a pot belly, no one would have turned a hair but because Charlie is a woman, she’s considered to be a fair target.” Charlie, 57, said she began to love gardening at a very early age. She trained in horticulture in Somerset before joining the staff at a garden centre in Romsey.
By chance, that garden centre is where she met TV producer John Thornicroft who would scout her for Ground Force. Sadly, towards the end of her Ground Force stint, both her mum and stepdad were tragically killed in a tsunami while holidaying in Thailand..
