Mark Lane is a British television presenter, landscape designer, columnist, radio broadcaster and writer.

Early life and education

Born in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

in 1969 he is also a landscape designer, and the UK’s first

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

gardening presenter who uses a wheelchair. Mark was born with spina bifida and in 2000 he had a car accident which led to operations on his spine. Mark use a wheelchair full time. After graduating from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in Art History his career led him to work at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) where he eventually became the Publishing Director. After this he moved to the Arts publisher

Thames & Hudson Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...

as Managing Editor. Mark's love for gardening led him to retrain as a garden designer via an Open Learning course. Once Mark had retrained he combined writing for newspapers and gardening magazines.

TV work

Mark's break into TV presenting occurred after the BBC saw one of his articles and contacted him to see if he would be interested in presenting. He is now the only disabled presenter on ''

Gardeners' World ''Gardeners' World'' is a long-running British gardening programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1968. The 2022 series is the 53rd. Its first series was presented by Ken Burras and came from Oxford Botanical Gardens. Up until 2020 most of its e ...

'' working alongside Monty Don, Carol Klein, Adam Frost, Jo Swift and Rachel de Thame and the Gardening Expert on

Morning Live ''Morning Live'' is a "topical live series" that airs at 9:15 am on weekdays on BBC One. Series overview History ''Morning Live'' first broadcast in October 2020 as a 40-part series to connect with viewers' real-life concerns and to offer tr ...

' Mark is a regular presenter at the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

(RHS) Flower Shows, namely

RHS Chelsea Flower Show The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the ''Great Spring Show'',Phil Clayton, ''The Great Temple Show'' in ''The Garden'' 2008, p.452, The Royal Horticultural Society is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural ...

, RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival and RHS Tatton Flower Show. Mark is also working with the RHS and

to create a Feature Garden at Hampton Court Flower Show 2023. Mark also has his own 2-hour shows every week on

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Penn ...

and QVC Style. Mark appeared on BBC Celebrity Mastermind in 2018. His specialist subject was the Life and Works of

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

. John Humphrys fielded the tricky questions. Joining Mark on the pre-Christmas ednetwor was broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles, BBC Media Editor

Amol Rajan Amol Rajan (born 4 July 1983) is an Indian-born British journalist and broadcaster who has been the BBC's Media Editor since December 2016 and a presenter on the ''Today'' programme on BBC Radio 4 since 2021. Rajan was editor of ''The Indepen ...

and Celebrity Big Brother winner

Courtney Act Shane Gilberto Jenek (born 18 February 1982), better known under the stage name Courtney Act, is an Australian drag queen, singer and television personality. Courtney first came to prominence competing on the Australian Idol (season 1), first s ...

. Mark raised £3,000 for the charity Leonard Cheshire. Mark also created the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

ITV Ident for January 2021 with collage artist Sharon Walters Mark was a finalist for 'Celebrity of the Year' in the National Diversity Awards 2021. Mark Lane Designs Ltd has also won numerous garden design awards in the UK and overseas and works closely with

BALI Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...

, RHS and the

. On 17 March, Mark appeared on BBC Comic Relief along with the rest of the BBC Morning Live presenter family to celebrate

Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C a ...

's incredible BBC Strictly danceathon for

Red Nose "Red Nose" is a song by American rapper Sage the Gemini from his debut album '' Remember Me''. The song was released as his debut single on March 19, 2013. It was a minor hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at number 52 but fared better on ...

. An incredible £1.3 million was raised, the highest amount of any

fundraising event.

Charity work

Mark's philanthropic work is far reaching. He is Patron of Core Arts, a Trustee for Gardening with Disabilities Trust, an Ambassador for Groundwork, Thrive, Greenfingers, Melanoma Fund, Leonard Cheshire and

. Mark also became a team leader of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Marvel Superhero Series in 2023. The mission is simple: to create fun, full-throttle, mass-participation sports events where people with disabilities – AKA Superheroes – call the shots & don’t have to worry about cut-off times or equipment restrictions. Mark lives in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

with his civil partner Jasen. Mark's first book "Royal Gardens of the World" was published in 2020 by

Kyle Books Kyle or Kyles may refer to: Places Canada * Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada Ireland * Kyle, County Laois * Kyle, County Wexford Scotland * Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Mark Horticulturists 1969 births British television presenters Living people Alumni of University College London Television presenters with disabilities