By Mike Parker

How can you tell it’s Autumn?

Easy - Strictly Come Dancing starts on the TV, and the Malvern Autumn Show tells you it has arrived.

This year the show organisers decided to combine the two….

Anton du Beke dazzled the show on Sunday with a question and answer session and a dance masterclass that attracted massive audiences from the showgoers.

But he was only one of the star names, with Gloucestershire celebrity chef Tom Kerridge visiting on Saturday and gardening expert Carol Klein on hand to offer growing advice.

Anton, however, was the star of the show.

And he let slip a few secrets about Strictly and, as this is a gardening show, his abilities: “The best I can do is watch someone mow the lawn.”

However, on the burning question of whether he will replace Len Goodman as a judge on the show he said: “I have to wait to be asked and they haven’t had a conversation with me about it.”

But he added that, while it would be an honour: “I still want to dance.”

He also revealed his dream celebrity partner: “I would like to dance with the Countess of Wessex, because I know she’s a big fan.”

Elsewhere, the show was the usual mix of agriculture, gardening and hobbies galore, as a display of vintage caravans jostled for space alongside the ever-crowded food displays, alpacas and water buffalo, and the ever-popular giant vegetables, which this year threw up four new world records – the World’s Heaviest Red Cabbage, by David Thomas of Hayle in Cornwall and three records for Joe Atherton from Mansfield, the World’s longest Radish, Carrot and Beetroot.

The show, as always, attracted thousands of people from all over Wales and the South West. Ken Nottage, the CEO of the Three Counties Agricultural Society, said: “There really is something for everyone and we cannot wait to throw open the gates and welcome our many visitors to another marvellous year of Malvern Autumn Show.”

However, while star names come and go, the true gardening fan comes for the plants.

As the crowds waited for Anton, one grizzled chap, who obviously regarded the potting shed as ‘inside’, asked who was on. ‘Anton du Beke’ came the reply.

‘Who?’ said the old chap, and wandered off.

It really is a show for everyone.