Alan Titchmarsh reveals a feud with a fellow cast member on the show

For years, Ground Force sold itself as the ultimate feel-good TV comfort watch: one messy garden, one emotional homeowner, and three familiar faces racing the clock to build a backyard dream in just two days. It looked wholesome. It sounded wholesome. And most of the time, it was.

But behind the cheerful planting montages and triumphant “before-and-after” reveals, even Ground Force had its breaking point.

And it all came down to… sawdust.

The show that turned garden makeovers into a national obsession

Between 1997 and 2005, Ground Force ran for 12 series and reportedly pulled massive audiences—up to around 12 million at its peak. The formula was addictive: Alan Titchmarsh as the calm horticulture authority, Charlie Dimmock as the hands-on garden wizard, and Tommy Walsh as the builder who could turn chaos into a finished patio before the sun went down.

The show didn’t just entertain—it influenced how Britain renovated. Even hardware retailers felt the wave, with reports at the time pointing to decking sales exploding in the years Ground Force dominated TV.

So, with that kind of pressure—tight schedules, muddy sites, and constant “we need this done NOW” energy—it’s honestly a miracle there weren’t more blow-ups.

“We were like family”… and family argues

Charlie later compared the on-set vibe to being in a family: you work with the same crew week after week, you laugh constantly, and eventually you stop being politely professional and start being brutally honest.

That “family” dynamic is sweet—until it isn’t.

Because families don’t just bond. They clash.

The day Alan “lost his rag”

The infamous moment reportedly happened during a 2000 shoot in Pitsea, Essex. The team was pushing to finish planting beds and get the garden looking “show-home perfect” before the final reveal.

Tommy was sawing timber nearby—normal builder chaos—when the saw kicked out dust and debris… and it drifted straight onto Alan’s freshly prepared flower beds.

To Alan, it wasn’t just mess. It was sacrilege.

He later joked that he likes his finished gardens looking pristine, and seeing them sprinkled with sawdust felt like looking at a garden covered in “dandruff.” It sounds funny now—but in the moment, it clearly wasn’t.

Because for once, the famously mild Alan wasn’t mild at all.

Tommy’s side: “I was grafting… and he’s moaning about dust”

Tommy has also spoken about the tension afterward—saying things got “hairy” for a while. From his point of view, he was working flat-out under the same brutal two-day deadline, and suddenly Alan was furious about what looked like a minor detail.

That’s the real heart of the argument: perfection vs. pace.

Alan’s job was to deliver a flawless final look.
Tommy’s job was to make sure the build didn’t collapse… and finished on time.

On a TV makeover set, those priorities collide fast.

The part nobody expects: they literally kissed and made up

Here’s where the story turns into pure Ground Force legend.

After tempers cooled, the pair didn’t just shake hands and move on. According to Tommy, they actually kissed and made up—a ridiculous, very “British telly” way to end an argument that could’ve become awkward for weeks.

And in the middle of it all, Charlie allegedly did what every smart person does when two co-workers are having a moment: kept her head down and stayed out of the blast zone.

Why this tiny row became such a big story

Because it exposes something viewers rarely see: these shows are built on pressure.

You’re trying to transform a garden at speed, on camera, with real homeowners waiting for the reveal—and every mistake feels bigger because millions will see it. One person’s “tiny dust problem” is another person’s “we’re going to miss the deadline.”

And yet, that’s what makes this story weirdly comforting: even the most wholesome TV trio had a blow-up… and still stayed close.

They argued like family, laughed like friends, and moved on like pros.

Which might be the most Ground Force thing of all.