Although he resigned from GroundForce last year, Tommy Walsh is brimming with exciting plans for the future which will see him on our screens in all manner of guises.

Q: What has been the highlight of your year?

A: It's been a punishing year, but good nevertheless. My four DIY books are now out and they're doing well. I've also completed a DVD called DIY Survival, for GUT Records, which is the first time it has ever been done. It's a series of stand-alone modules so you can go to the menu and slow it down to follow it step-by-step while you do your own DIY.

Any bad things happen in the past 12 months?

I got so ill in Marrakech when we were filming that for the first time in eight years, after 1,000 programmes, I had to take time off and stay in bed. I had salmonella and I was really sick. But it was very sad - that was my last ever Ground-Force.

So, the day your many fans have dreaded has finally com
e, and you and your natty braces have filmed your final GroundForce. Why are you leaving?
I think it's such a good format that rather than drive it into the floor they should put it to sleep for five years and bring it back with a new cast and crew, and a slight twist. That way they will get another six years out of it.

Have you been inundated with offers since?

I have turned down loads of stuff. I was asked to do I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, and Strictly Come Dancing. I couldn't do the first and eat things like bugs and rats, and my kids said they didn't want me to do Strictly Come Dancing unless I was going to be dancing with mum! I decided to take a sabbatical between November and Easter because I want to finish my house in Hackney.

You finally got planning permission, then?

It was granted last March, and took an incredible two years and four months, but I have been away so often I haven't done nearly as much to the house as I'd hoped. I managed to rebuild the back addition and the shell is completely finished, but now I have to do the inside. It's shocking what things cost - the other day I got a quote for the staircase, which was made in American oak, and it was £30,000 plus VAT! I can't afford that, I need someone cheaper to make it and fit it.

When do you think you will move into your new home then?

Well, we intend to move sometime in the summer, but I'll see how it goes. There's a lot to do before it's habitable.

Career-wise, what other avenues are you looking at for the future?

I like radio, so I might do a stand-in for somebody on a station like LBC. I was offered a job on a Sunday but it was between 2-4pm and that's pub time! It's the great British tradition, you go down the pub Sunday afternoon before you go home for your roast dinner. When I was doing GroundForce it was the only day of the week I could seriously book for myself.

Talking of books, when I was on my publicity tour for the DIY books, I was talking to my publicists about food and describing some of the wholesome foods which seem to have disappeared from the average dinner table – things like oxtail or shin of beef. They were salivating and suggested I could write a recipe book. I want to include all-natural ingredients and bring back some dishes we seem to have forgotten about, and my working title is Builder's Broth!

I'd also like to design a range of clothing and get involved with saving Marks & Spencer. It's a great British tradition and establishment and it has been undermined by mischief makers, who do that very British thing of knocking something successful until it starts to fall, and then look around for someone to blame.

Did you have a wonderful leaving party? After all, you and Charlie Dimmock are GroundForce now Alan Titchmarsh has gone.

No, it was a real damp squib. The producers didn't prepare a party but I couldn't have gone if they had because I was so ill. In the end we just came home and that was the end of it. It doesn't seem right after eight years, but there’s no hard feelings. The BBC asked me if I wanted to change the format of the show but I said no. I just need my life back a bit.

Will you continue with your other television work, such as working for the Discovery Channel?

Oh for sure, I'm about to film another series of Challenge Tommy Walsh which I really enjoy.

I have also formed my own production company, called Free Spirit. We recently got our first commission from the Discovery Channel which we will be filming in the summer. It's about men and their sheds! We'll be interviewing lots of men about what they keep in their sheds, what they do in their sheds and why they're so keen on their sheds.

To keep the programme focused we'll also be building our own shed, which we will keep adding onto. It will end up as the Southfork of sheds!

What's the thinking behind Free Spirit, and what kind of programmes do you intend to make in the future?

I have three partners and our ethos is to make a good series the public will enjoy watching. It's nothing to do with making it for the cheapest amount of money possible, or maximising profits. We will make a series we think the public will like and we will live or die by that decision.

You once said you wanted to play a baddie in a movie. Any further forward there?

I've just finished a movie! I am a hit man, the film is called One, and it's a very low budget, British movie, made by a writer and director called Rob Brown, who is based in Birmingham. It's a cross between a thriller and an art-house movie, and it's a bit French, too.

It was very interesting to do. My role was originally a cameo but it became more pivotal and I had reams of dialogue to learn. I didn't get the chance to read the script until the night before rehearsals. I was up until 4am with my 13-year-old daughter Natalie, who studies drama, trying to learn my lines. By four, I was still no further forward but she was word perfect!

It was very disconcerting - I like to be able to handle what I'm doing. But the producers made me feel a bit easier when they said Marlon Brando never learned a line in his life. The whole thing was a confidence boost for me and although it still isn't finished the film has gone to a film festival in America.

So you are not going to disappear without trace, then? Your fans would never forgive you if they didn't see you on mainstream television any more.

I think the public may have had their fill of me but the BBC has enough programmes in the can to show three more series of GroundForce, so I'll be on everyone's TV screens for some time yet.

It was ironic though, that I got ill on the last day of my last show. I'd never missed a minute's filming before. Maybe my body was trying to tell me something, saying that I needed to pack up and give it a break, and that's exactly what I am doing. I want to come back revived and raring to go!