Alan Titchmarsh visits Dinton Valley's prayer garden

Dinton Valley had a television crew, three vans and a small crowd of hopeful onlookers outside the church on Thursday, all in aid of Alan Titchmarsh, who spent the morning filming among the prayer garden's roses for a gardening programme.

The garden has been the quiet work of Norman Fewkes for thirty one years, and he took the attention with the same equanimity he brings to greenfly. Asked what he made of a well known television gardener admiring his delphiniums, he considered the question and said they were due a feed anyway.

Mr Titchmarsh was, by all accounts, extremely pleasant, admired the yew hedge at some length, and accepted a slice of Betty Loach's coffee cake with what several witnesses called genuine enthusiasm. He was less taken with the concrete birdbath, which Norman has been meaning to replace since 1994.

Filming wrapped by early afternoon, and the crew left with several hours of footage of a hedge, a bench and one determined robin who appeared in almost every shot. The programme is expected to air later in the year, and Dinton Valley is already rehearsing modesty.

Norman, for his part, has gone back to the greenfly.