The IH Team were delighted to have been chosen by ITV to be the main contractor for their new prime time show ‘Love Your Home & Garden’. I was equally delighted to have been asked to co-present the series alongside Alan Titchmarsh. However, as the final details of the deal were being flushed out the reality of the situation began to dawn on me.
The tight budgets and the almost impossible time scales, coupled with working on 3 separate builds in 3 separate locations with 3 separate design teams began to weigh heavily on me. What the hell had I agreed to? Also, I had lines to learn! I’ve not had to learn lines since I was 17 years old, landing the plum role as servant number 2 in Thomas Middleton’s ‘The Revengers Tragedy’. If all of that wasn’t enough I had to deliver these lines alongside TV royalty, Alan Titchmarsh.
As I sat in a coffee shop in East London the phrase ‘Careful what you wish for’, kept spinning around my head, no doubt fuelled by the double espresso I had foolishly consumed seconds before. I stood up, smiled broadly at the barista in a vain attempt to shake off any self-doubt. As I headed up the staircase to my meeting with the production team, my imp perversely sang ‘you might just get it, you might just get it’ over and over again.
Over the next 3 weeks as the new series of ‘Love Your Home and Garden’ airs on ITV I will be publishing a behind-the-scenes look at what it took for me and IH to deliver the builds and co-present the show.