CHRIS TITLEY tries to keep up with one of the busiest men on the box

MONTY Don is busy dismantling his television image. "I'm not a superman, working an 18-hour day, bringing in a basket of vegetables under one arm and a manuscript under another," he says.

You could have fooled me. I've read the Monty Don books (one a year) and the newspaper columns. I've watched his TV travelogues, the gardening and food shows, like Real Gardens and Fork To Fork. I've seen how this former owner of a jewellery business gave up the rat race to start living off the land with his wife Sarah and three children in deepest Herefordshire.

Forget X-ray eyes and blue tights. Here is a real live superman.

I have help, Monty insists. A gardener comes in three days a week. Sarah works her socks off. A full-time PA organises the office.

But he's kidding no one. This is a man who happily bounds into his garden to do some digging at six in the morning.

"I do work hard by any standards," he said. "The reason I work hard is I enjoy it. I don't see gardening as work."

Which is why the last few days have been purgatory. He has been confined to his bed with flu. For an all-sowing, all-reaping action man, that is the hardest work of all.

Yet the germs haven't overcome his enthusiasm. His latest TV show, Don Roaming, is in North Yorkshire all next week, and he is eager to explain why he loves this part of the world.

When he met Sarah she was already married. They ran off together and ended up on the North York Moors.

"My cousin had a house there - he came from Yorkshire. He's a great hunter," Monty explains. "Sarah and I had run away together and we had no money.

"I said to him, 'I want to write a book, I have hardly anything for rent'. He said, 'that's okay, as long as you keep my horse fit, and if need be, ride him to hounds'."

That's how Monty found himself galloping along the moors on a 17-hand Cleveland bay, despite having hardly any riding experience. Told you he was superman, didn't I?

Although they only stayed in the cottage for a few months 20 years ago, they made many good friends and regularly return. So his trip back to the area to film Don Roaming was a pleasurable experience. For the most part.

What he didn't enjoy was a trawler fishing trip off the coast of Whitby.

"That's tough work - if you can stay upright. I was just as sick as a dog. I spent most of that trip in the back, rising every 15 minutes to decorate a bucket."

Next week's programmes - which are broadcast every weekday at 3.15pm on Channel 4 - see him also on terra firma in York, Scarborough and at Newby Hall, near Ripon.

The show sets out to discover what gives each region of Britain its identity. Although it is not a food show, local grub plays a prominent part. In general, Monty was not happy with what he tasted.

"It was deeply depressing, not because there were so few really good things, because the best is always rare. The depressing thing was how ubiquitously mediocre things were."

Too few caterers made an effort, either with food or service. It needn't be like this, he said.

"You always go back to the same things - simple, fresh ingredients, preferably of local origin - cooked with care and, dare I say, love. As though you were preparing a meal for someone you love."

He did come across examples of excellent Yorkshire food, however. Butcher Robert Ford, from Glaisdale, has long been a Monty favourite. He has his own farm, and so is in control of the meat every step of the way.

"He was sorting some hams, and he said, 'that pig was running around in the yard two days ago'."

And Monty also sampled the best fish and chips "in the world" at Whitby's Magpie restaurant.

He may have encountered very mixed culinary experiences during filming, but Monty emerged from the series optimistic about the individuality of British life outside London.

"I think there is still regional identity, and that's good and vital.

"I don't think it leads to the break up of society. Our differences are what bind us together and what makes us interesting."

If superman says it, that's good enough for me.

Updated: 08:56 Saturday, December 01, 2001