Ground Force and Homes Under the Hammer star Tommy Walsh dies aged 69

Walsh got his big break on TV after restoring the house of a BBC producer who was working on ideas for a show that would turn into Ground Force.

"She asked me to look at a couple of pilots. One of them was the precursor to Ground Force, called Over the Garden Wall," he told the BBC in 2004. "It was like watching paint dry - it was terrible."

Walsh said he initially turned down the chance to star on the show three times - but agreed when his eight-year-old daughter told him she had made a £10 bet with a boy at school that her dad was going to be on TV.