Love Your Weekend star Alan Titchmarsh – who is hosting the show on Sunday, June 2 – once revealed why he won’t be appearing on Strictly anytime soon.
Last summer, the 75-year-old confessed that he’d turned the hit BBC show down for the SIXTH time because of a warning issued by his wife…
Love Your Weekend star Alan Titchmarsh on Strictly
Speaking to The Daily Star in August 2023, Alan revealed that he’d been forced to reject approaches by Strictly on several occasions on account of his knees.
“Strictly asked me again this year for the sixth time. My wife [Alison] taught dance and she said my knees won’t take the lifts and I think she’s quite right. So I stay clear of that one,” he said.
“I was asked to do I’m A Celebrity last year and I turned that one down for about the third time, too,” he then continued.
“That’s not my bag, I’m not a reality TV type. I like to be doing something, like presenting, rather than people assassinating me for the fluff in my navel. I worry about the damage to the wildlife on that show!” he then added.
Love Your Weekend star Alan Titchmarsh has ‘row’ with co-star
Back in 2016, Alan’s former Ground Force co-star, Tommy Walsh, opened up on a “row” he and Alan had had while doing the show together.
Alan and Tommy were co-stars on Ground Force between 1997 and 2002.
In 2000, the duo had something of a falling out when Tommy made a mess with sawdust on some flowers in an Essex garden.
“Call me picky if you like but I like my Ground Force gardens to be pristine when we finish them. I do not get a thrill from seeing them covered in dandruff,” Alan told Radio Times at the time.
In 2016, Tommy admitted that Alan’s comments had made him “cross”.
“For a while it did get a bit hairy… What made me cross was that I was working flat out to get everything ready and here was Alan moaning about a bit of stray sawdust,” he said.
Alan on ‘cancel culture’ fears
Elsewhere, Alan opened up on his fears over cancel culture during an interview in October last year.
Speaking to The Telegraph at the time, he said: “I think cancel culture is terrifying. It makes you very careful about what you say, and if the point ever came when that strain and that worry became too much, for me or my family, I think I’d say, enough. I’ll go,” he said.
“This is the first time I’ve ever admitted that. But I’ve had a good run.”
The gardener said he finds it “heartbreaking” that some people have had to give up their careers due to their views.
“As you get older you realise it’s an increasingly fragile path, because you can so easily be misconstrued. There are days when I think, do I really want to be putting my head up this parapet?” he then added.
Read more: Love Your Weekend star Alan Titchmarsh on ‘disappointing’ encounter with the Queen
Love Your Garden airs on Sunday, June 2 at 9.30am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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