Love Your Weekend presenter Alan Titchmarsh has emphasised the importance of programmes celebrating rural life like his own, when audiences are being "drowned" in negative news.

The gardening expert and broadcaster's ITV programme launched in 2020, showcasing the British countryside and its offerings.

During an appearance on Lorraine on Thursday morning (January 15), the 76-year-old explained that people were constantly exposed to "tragedy" and that his show "pushes something of that back".

Alan - who recently gave fans a health update - was speaking with host Christine Lampard, who observed: "In terms of rural life, you have given rural life a voice for all of these years."

"I do hope so, it desperately needs one," he responded, reports the Mirror.

"I mean we do a sort of running mini-series on young farmers, and just explain to people what it entails and what a great life it is, because we get so much negativity about the country, there appears to be so little sympathy for rural life.

"Love Your Weekend addresses it and says, look this is what it is, this is important, don't squander it, this is our children's legacy, and we need to make sure that we value it."

The presenter revealed he had dedicated approximately 60 years of his life to working with nature and the outdoors, saying "there is no better life".

"We're so, we're absolutely drowned every night in bad news," Alan remarked.

"I think now they should change the name of news and call it tragedy, because that's all we get every night, every single killing everywhere. We can't process this, we're not equipped as human beings to keep a sense of proportion and perspective, and I hope, Love Your Weekend pushes something of that back and says, this scenery here, this is real, this is in a way more real than this stuff you've seen.

"It's our responsibility," he went on, before checking with TV star Christine whether he'd had "a bit of a rant".

"No it's not," she assured him. "I couldn't agree more, I completely agree with it."

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Lorraine airs weekdays on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm