Gardening goddess Charlie Dimmock rose to fame during her eight years on Ground Force - but she got the job after building a pond on ITV series Grass Roots.
After finding a love for gardening as a child, Charlie trained as an amenity horticulturist before working at a garden centre, where she would meet future TV producer John Thornicroft.
Five years later she was brought in to present the iconic gardening show along with green-fingered expert Alan Titchmarsh and celebrity builder Tommy Walsh.
Running for a whopping 12 series between 1997 and 2005, the show became an institution and catapulted Charlie into the limelight.
As well as attracting 12 million viewers at its peak, Ground Force led to an increase of garden decking sales, with B&Q revealing sales had risen from £5,000 in 1997 to £16 million in 2001.
The three hosts quickly built a strong friendship on and off-screen, although there was once some awkward tension over sawdust on a flowerbed.
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"When we first started filming we were polite to each other for the first two series but by the third series we were like family," explained Charle to HELLO! magazine in June.
"My main memory of Ground Force was laughing lots. It was the same team week in, week out, as well as the same production and crew. You know what it's like when you work with a team of people and you get on."
Earlier this year, Charlie opened up on why she didn't wear a bra while presenting the show and being nicknamed 'horticultural Viagra'.
Speaking to The Independent, she said: "The TV presenter Esther Rantzen said to me, 'You'll be labelled the bra-less one for the rest of your life'.
"Ground Force was a long time ago, and I have to say, even now, people will bring it up. It is very silly.
"It was always just for comfort. If you're swinging a sledgehammer, you want to be comfortable! People say, 'Why don't you wear a sports bra?' But those are not the comfiest things in the world."
In a surprising move, Charlie made a cameo on Hollyoaks in August 2002 as a special guest booked by Gordon Cunningham to unveil the Jubilee Gardens.
In her personal life, Charlie was with long-term partner John Mushet when she joined the show - having met the viticulturist while travelling around New Zealand in the early 90s.
But they split in 2001 after Charlie had a short relationship with a member of the Ground Force crew - microphone operator Andy Simmons.
However, the romance didn't last and she went on to date another member of the programme's crew - sound technician Barry Smith.
When the news of the affair was made public, Charlie claimed she had "no regrets" and has spoken to John a few times since they broke-up.
"I don't see Andy any more, but I don't regret what happened. You wouldn't do anything if you kept worrying about what might go wrong," she told The Daily Mail in 2002.
"John and I had been together for a long time so when we split up I heavily relied on family and close friends.
"I’ve discovered that the most difficult after-effect of the break-up is getting into another relationship."
In 2016, Charlie said she was "way past marriage" and that even sharing a house with someone would "be a no for me".
Once Ground Force ended in 2005, the gardening pro presented shows such as The Joy of Gardening and Charlie's Garden Army as well as a gardening slot on American TV station CBS.
Charlie also appeared on Celebrity Masterchef in 2006 and was President of the Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) from 2003 to 2004.
The gardener then enjoyed a hiatus from TV, telling Radio Times: "People think that if you're suddenly not on telly, you've stopped working.
"That doesn't happen, because we all have mortgages to pay. I had been on TV a very long time, but I had always been doing other things."
Charlie suffered personal tragedy when her mother, Sue Kennedy, and stepfather Rob tragically died in the 2004 tsunami while on the island of Phuket in Thailand.
Charlie did not speak about the tragedy at the time but her agent said in a statement: "It is very upsetting for her. It has been too soon for her to come to terms with it.
"She is coping day by day at the moment. We have promised her that we will protect her."
The 55-year-old now presents BBC series Garden Rescue, which sees her compete with award winning garden designers the Rich brothers to create stunning gardens for people across the country.
Earlier this year, Charlie explained that she is still in contact with her former Ground Force colleagues.
She told World of Cruising: "I haven't seen them recently, but we're still in contact. Occasionally we chat or bump into each other.
"Tommy teases me that we're getting old now, which is true, but we have loads of happy memories of filming – lots and lots of laughter."
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