Ah, I think that De Thame is her married name whereas Colover was her maiden name.
This is a big biography that is quite interesting.
Play the Garden Game with Rachel
BBC2 Gardeners' World presenter Rachel de Thame has deeply personal reasons for launching a contest to aid cancer victims, as she explains to CHARLOTTE BRADSHAW.
ONE would think that as a former ballerina, model and actress, Rachel de Thame would be accustomed to attracting attention. But, as it turns out, the striking 36-year-old recruit to BBC2's hardy perennial, Gardeners' World, is actually something of a shrinking violet.
Asked how she is coping with her new-found fame, she snorts with laughter. "It's gardening that we are talking about, not pop music - I am not the new Posh Spice." True, but she is the new Charlie Dimmock, or at least that is what some have called her.
Gardening, however, is not the only passion in Rachel's life. She is also an ardent campaigner for the Macmillan Cancer Relief Fund. On Monday she will launch a Virtual Garden Game, which will form part of the World's Biggest Coffee Morning, sponsored by the Internet's ntl and supported by the Daily Express. It is hoped that the event will raise public awareness and generate �2million-plus for Macmillan - players will have the opportunity to make on-screen donations.
Rachel will invite keen gardeners to try their luck at growing a virtual garden. For four weeks gardeners taking part online will need to water, feed and protect three virtual plants from all sorts of natural catastrophes. The winner will receive a holiday in Turkey to see its famous indigenous tulips, progenitors of the species that now flourish so profusely in Holland.
It is a charity that Rachel holds dear to her heart because, like so many people, her life has been touched by cancer. Six years ago, when she was dating Gerard, now her husband, she was affected by the death of his father from the disease. "I hadn't known him for long," she says, "but in the space of a short time we became very close. He was cared for by some excellent Macmillan nurses and so I was able to witness at first hand what an outstanding job they did.
"When people are told that they have cancer the initial shock is enormous. Part of the work that the Macmillan nurses do is to help you not feel so afraid of the big cancer thing. We are all so terrified by it and by the treatment - particularly people who know they are dying. I have great admiration for people who deal with that enormously difficult task on a daily basis."
RACHEL is an intensely private person, fiercely protective of Gerard, who directs TV commercials, and her two children from her first marriage, Lauren, 11 and Joe, nine. This is an unusual trait for a woman who has spent her life in front of cameras. "I am trying to take it easy," she says. "I do turn a lot of things down that I would do if I was keen for publicity, but I am wary of doing that. I am older and have a family and I am trying to build a long-term career. If you get an instant response, the more likely it is that your career will be instantly over. I want to get to the stage where others in the field respect me as a good gardener. That is what would mean the most to me."
Becoming a presenter of a gardening programme has certainly taken hard work. Until she was 19 Rachel went to the Royal Ballet School and was on track to become a professional ballerina. After a bad case of glandular fever signalled the end of her career, however, she spent most of her 20s working as a model and actress. "I did 80 television commercials," she recalls, "though most were shown abroad. I managed to have a really good and busy career without becoming well known, which was absolutely perfect."
It was then that she decided to develop her love of gardening into a career and registered for two years at the English Garden School at Chelsea Physic Garden. When a leaflet went round asking graduates of the college to do a screen test for Gardeners' World, she felt that her green fingers and experience as a model would be the perfect combination.
"I grew up with parents who were keen on gardening and spent every weekend taking me to garden centres. I was always surrounded by plants and some of their power must have seeped in. Gardener's World has always been part of the furniture of my life. I associate plants with being happy and with happy times."
And is she the new Charlie? "Being compared to Charlie is very flattering. She has done so much to encourage women to go into the garden and get stuck in. But I am sure Charlie gets fed up with the comparison. Gardeners tend to be very good natured people, with patience and the ability to share plants and advice. So, hopefully, there is room for more than one female gardening presenter." But Rachel will undoubtedly blossom on our screens for some time to come.
(from
http://www.lineone.net/express/00/09/09/features/f6100-d.html)