One Gardeners’ World presenter sadly died without achieving her dream of having 11 children, as the BBC star never married. Mary Rose Spiller was the programme’s first female presenter, joining the show in the early 1980s. She starred in 24 episodes of the show until 2007, and also appeared on BBC series Glorious Gardens from Above in 2014 – a year after her official retirement.

But though she reached the incredible age of 95, Mary never tied the knot because “the right person never came along”. She had dreamed of welcoming 11 children, “enough to make a cricket team”, but sadly died without having any. She was close, however, to her nephews, nieces and cousins.

Her nephew Andrew said at the time of her death in 2019: “She was very close to us as children. She would take us to Waterperry out on the river. She wrote books for my little boys and was always very involved with children.”

Her niece Jane added to the Oxford Mail: “She was devoted to, loved and will be missed by her surviving sister [Betty] and three generations of cousins, nephews and nieces, along with many, many friends whose lives she touched and influenced."

Mary died after a short illness in an Oxfordshire hospital, but was “really with it right until the end” and was visited by friends and family in her final days.

The official Gardeners’ World social media accounts rushed to pay tribute when the news of Mary’s death broke.

A statement put out by the BBC show at the time read: “We're so sad to hear that Mary Spiller passed away on Sunday at the age of 95. She devoted her life to horticulture and made history in 1982 by becoming the first female presenter on Gardeners' World. She was an inspiration to us all and we shall miss her very much.”