He's not being morbid but Alan Titchmarsh has already chosen his epitaph.

And it isn't prompted by his dramatic experiences scaling a 90ft rockface and dodging a crashing helicopter during filming of his latest TV series.

But rather, the words he jokingly says he wants inscribed on his tombstone come from none other than her Majesty the Queen.

The man who was famously voted the sexiest man on TV after George Clooney was given the royal seal of approval when he received an MBE.

And he still chuckles as he remembers the Queen's words - "You have given a lot of ladies a lot of pleasure."

The - no doubt - unintentional double entendre was initially lost on him, he admits.

"I didn't really realise until afterwards what she had said," he explained.

"At the time she said it I am quite sure she didn't mean it to sound that way."

Who knows? The affable celebrity gardener does seem to consistently top the charts in the heart throb stakes.

It's a burden he bears with equanimity. "I am a bit incredulous," he admits. "But it's very nice and very flattering."

Alison, his wife of 27 years, takes his role as housewife's favourite very much in her stride.

"She raises an eyebrow and says does it mean you," he said.

But the down-to-earth Yorkshireman does has a knack of getting in the headlines, and the recent dramatic climb over a 90 foot cliff is a case in point.

The former Ground Force presenter, 54, has hailed an all action hero after scaling the rockface to get help when his film crew were cut off by the tide during filming of the BBC series The Natural History of Great Britain.

But he insists: "It was not heroics. I simply did what any lad who had been brought up at the edge of Ilkley Moor would have down."

The helicopter crash , by comparison, was "a bit scary", he said. In that incident, also for the Natural History of Great Britain, a helicopter filming aerial views at 100ft above him crashed into the hillside. The director and pilot were unhurt and the cameraman escaped with cracked ribs.

"We were very lucky everyone got out of it," he said. "someone said to me you're not having much luck in this series, but actually I think we were very lucky."

His latest ventures are likely to be a little less dramatic. On November 22 Mr Titchmarsh is to switch on the Christmas lights in his home town of Ilkley.

And on the same night he will appear on the BBCs Big Read Top 21 enthusing about the novel Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.

The story has been a firm favourite since he was 15 and he borrowed it from his mother's bookshelf to keep him company on a cold rainy night.

In those days the TV star was working overtime for the Ilkley parks department and read the novel whilst sheltering in a shed by the bowling green.

He described the book as a "damned good read", adding: "It was incredibly evocative of Cornwall and romance."

Whilst in Ilkley Mr Titchmarsh will also carry out an informal book signing of his latest work The Royal Gardeners - for which the TV series will also start to be screened during November.

Clearly no slouch, Mr Titchmarsh writes for a number of publications and has published 30 gardening books, four novels and his autobiography.

With assorted TV series under his belt his work is prolific - but he insists: "I do sleep - I like a good seven hours a night and I am fine.

"I do what I love doing - and I think when you are stimulated in your job you can achieve a lot."

But Mr Titchmarsh, who has two daughters Polly, 23, and Camilla, 21, has no doubt what his greatest achievement is.

"Bringing up two great kids," he says simply.