To suggest that Fiona Bruce isn’t easily fazed would be something of an understatement. Respected for taking politicians to task on BBC’s Question Time and renowned for her reassuring handling of the news, she is the essence of the unflappable primetime host. But there’s one thing that she can’t handle: worms.

“I’m so frightened of them!” she squirms, as we sit on a wisteria-shaded terrace at her Oxfordshire home one blisteringly hot Thursday morning. “Sometimes I see one and step back calmly; other times I shriek, throw my spade down and leg it!”

It’s a surprising revelation. It’s also somewhat problematic because Fiona loves gardening. “I’m keen as mustard, although my keenness is not matched by my prowess!” she laughs. Visitors to her home might agree to differ. There are apple and olive trees, rambling roses, a well-tended lawn and blowsy flowerbeds in a soothing palette of blue, white, purple and green. “I love the colours we have here in the summer,” she says.

Born in Singapore, Fiona moved around following her father’s job while she was growing up – to the UK, Milan and back to Singapore. Memories of childhood gardens are patchy, although she fondly recalls a swing that hung under a willow tree in their south London garden: “I’d sit on it and think, ‘I really like that boy. Does he fancy me?’ All those typical anguished teenage thoughts!”

It wasn’t until her thirties, when she got her own first patch of grass, that Fiona’s passion for gardening really developed. Such was her enthusiasm that she and then-fiancé Nigel, a media executive, asked guests to their 1994 wedding to bring a rather unusual gift: a plant of their choice. “I stuck them all in but, of course, we got a total mishmash of stuff that didn’t go together and didn’t work with the soil!” Serendipitously, a ‘Wedding Day’ rose survived.

While they have a home in north London, this rural escape is her haven and she’s here as much as her hectic schedule allows, weekends as a minimum. It’s crucial time out that helps her recalibrate. “I don’t get stressed with my job, but I think about politics a lot and sometimes the news can be incredibly depressing,” she reflects, as her Irish terrier Molly finds respite from the heat under the table. “To come here and not think about any of that is really precious. It’s like taking a deep breath.”

With Fiona’s job taking her around the UK, she’d be forgiven for collapsing in a deckchair. Instead, she weeds, prunes and digs (“unless it’s damp,” she confesses). “I’m a do-er rather than a sit-arounder kind of person.” Anything high maintenance is off limits. “I haven’t got time,” she concedes. Nigel is in charge of the vegetable beds and harvest. “I’m about as far from a domestic goddess as you can imagine – cooking is not my forte!”

The couple have two children, daughter Mia, 23, and son Sam, 27. Despite both being busy with their own lives (Mia at university, Sam is a TV producer), they’ll often all gather here to spend time as a family. Out comes the battered badminton net, the table tennis bats and the barbecue.

“I’m surprised and thrilled at how often they want to come. I loved going to see my parents in Devon, but I’m sure they’d have liked me to go more often,” she says of her late mother and father.

Then there’s Fiona’s other love – riding Woody, her horse, in the surrounding woodlands and fields. “I find it incredibly relaxing. I’m in the countryside, utterly in the moment. It’s occasionally slightly scary with a bit of speed. It’s my perfect combo.”

With such a passion for the transformative power of nature, her latest role as ambassador for the National Garden Scheme, the charity facilitating access to thousands of private gardens across the country, is an ideal fit. The NGS is the largest funder of Horatio’s Garden, Country Living’s charity partner, and funds 25 per cent of each garden as it is built. Fiona has visited and been inspired by many NGS gardens. A recent visit to one where ferns, hellebores and ‘Johnson’s Blue’ geraniums were thriving in a shady patch resolved a ten-year battle she’s had with a similar spot of her own. “We don’t all have a garden,” she adds. “Being in other people’s can only be a good thing.”

When she’s not advocating access to green spaces, Fiona is, of course, delving into the nation’s attics by way of Antiques Roadshow, now in its 48th year. “There’s something very comforting about the roadshow,” she says, explaining its success and why it’s kept her hooked for 17 years. “It puts us in touch with our history, the social fabric of our nation.” Are the crowds as friendly and engaged as they seem? “There’s grit in any oyster but, on the whole, Antiques

Roadshow is a glorious British experience.” She’s never had a mishap, but not everyone has been so lucky. “Someone brought a Clarice Cliff teaset, stumbled and dropped it,” she recalls. Then there was the couple who discovered their 6ft painting was worthless. “They propped it up against the hedge and left!” Her lengthy tenure has shaped her own taste: “I love vintage pieces, furniture that has lived a life.” She’s snapped up tables, lamps and paintings. “I didn’t grow up with money, so I’m not a big spender. Instead, I buy what I like.”

So what lies ahead for one of the BBC’s biggest talents? “Keeping all my ducks in a row, that’s as far as the plan goes. It’s a mercurial profession,” she admits. “I’m very fortunate to have done the jobs I’ve done for such a long time. But apart from Fake or Fortune?, I took over from someone else, so you have to accept that that’s life.” Surely Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time is a natural next step? “If you want an ignoramus hosting it, maybe,” she laughs. “Otherwise, definitely not!”

Fiona and Horatio’s Garden

Fiona Bruce is a committed supporter of Country Living’s 2025 charity partner Horatio’s Garden, partly inspired by her personal experience. When her mother spent a long period in hospital, Fiona was frustrated to find that the only outdoor space for patients was a weedy concrete courtyard: “It can sometimes be hard to feel well inside a hospital and the idea that a charity like Horatio’s provides a green sanctuary where you can feel like a human being again, not just a patient, is brilliant.”