Men Behaving Badly star Caroline Quentin reveals her surprising career change after 30 years on TV screens

She is best known as Dorothy in BBC’s Men Behaving Badly, in which she starred alongside Leslie Ash, Martin Clunes and Neil Morrisey.

And since then, Caroline Quentin has had a successful TV career spanning more than 30 years, starring in series such as Jonathan Creek and Kiss Me Kate.

But Caroline, 63, now has a new role – as an influencer – since launching her Instagram page and accompanying book, Drawn To The Garden.

Caroline has recently become an author with her book about her experience in running a vegetable and flower garden at her home in Devon, which she documented on Instagram during the Covid lockdown.

Asked about becoming an ‘influencer’, she said: ‘It does feel a bit like that! And why not? It’s wonderful that, in my 60s, I’m suddenly doing something entirely different.

‘I’m amazed that what started as an Instagram account has sort of blossomed into something much bigger.’ 

On why gardening has always been important to her, Caroline added: ‘Ever since I was little, it’s been a sort of security blanket. My childhood was quite chaotic; my mother, who had bipolar disorder, would often spend time in psychiatric hospitals.

‘When I was 10, I was sent to boarding school with these horrible, grumpy matrons and regimented bath and mealtimes. 

‘I was a painfully shy child – I still am shy beneath my loud persona – and I remember being so homesick and discombobulated by everything in my life. 

‘But getting out in nature and watching things grow felt like time out from the ‘real’ world. It was an opportunity to leave all the sadness and scary things behind.’ 

Elsewhere in the interview, Caroline admitted she feels bad about working a lot while her two children were growing up and says it ‘left a hole’ in her.

She is mother to daughter Emily Rose and son William who she shares with her husband Sam Farmer.

Speaking to Good Housekeeping, the star told how she ‘didn’t listen’ to those who reminded her that her children are only small for a short while.

She said: ‘God, I missed them. I mourned them terribly when I was away. I think that’s probably why I feel so bad about it, because it left a hole in me. 

‘People said, ‘Oh, they’re young for such a short period of time’, and I didn’t listen; I thought I knew better, and I didn’t. 

‘I should have said no to work and yes to them, but because I was the breadwinner, I thought I had to do it. Well, I didn’t, did I? But you can’t turn back the clock; you have to live with these things.’ 

Caroline also opened up about her relationship with husband Sam, who she married in 2006. 

The couple met on the set of Men Behaving Badly where Caroline played outspoken nurse Dorothy and Sam worked as a runner.  

She said: ‘You have to speak, speak, speak. I’ve nagged Sam from day one to do that because I can’t bear sulking or silence. For him, it’s the other way round. 

‘He has to tell me to be quiet and do an Instagram post instead of talking to him all day! But I feel very lucky because I wouldn’t have achieved half of what I have without him.’

Read the full interview in Good Housekeeping’s April 2024 issue, on sale now.