Mark Lane (broadcaster)

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

Early life and education

Born in Hertfordshire in 1969 he is also a landscape designer, and the UK's first BBC gardening presenter who uses a wheelchair.

Mark was born with spina bifida and, in 2000, he had a car accident that led to operations on his spine. Mark uses a wheelchair full time.

After graduating from University College London 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 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'' working alongside Monty Don, Carol Klein, Adam Frost, Jo Swift and Rachel de Thame, and he is the gardening expert on BBC ''Morning Live'

Mark is a regular presenter at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Shows, namely RHS Chelsea Flower Show, RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival and RHS Tatton Flower Show. Mark is also working with the RHS and Morning Live to create a Feature Garden at Hampton Court Flower Show 2023.

Mark also has his own 2-hour shows every week on QVC and QVC Style.

Mark appeared on BBC Celebrity Mastermind in 2018. His specialist subject was the Life and Works of Piet Mondrian. John Humphrys fielded the tricky questions. Joining Mark on the pre-Christmas ednetwor was broadcaster Reverend Richard Coles, BBC Media Editor Amol Rajan and Celebrity Big Brother winner Courtney Act. Mark raised £3,000 for the charity Leonard Cheshire.

Mark also created the ITV 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, RHS and the BBC.

On 17 March, Mark appeared on BBC Comic Relief along with the rest of the BBC Morning Live presenter family to celebrate Gethin Jones's incredible BBC Strictly danceathon for Red Nose. An incredible £1.3 million was raised, the highest amount of any BBC fundraising event.

Mark was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Kent for his contribution to TV and garden design/horticulture.

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 BALI.

Mark also became a team leader of Disney 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 with his civil partner Jasen.

Mark's first book "Royal Gardens of the World" was published in 2020 by Kyle Books.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Mark
British horticulturists
1969 births
British television presenters
Living people
Alumni of University College London
Television presenters with disabilities
People with spina bifida
British writers with disabilities