London’s real life Christmas elves: the illuminator

This is the fourth year we’ve done the illuminations show at Kew and it’s growing every single year. It came about as a way to bring in more visitors during the winter months and evenings.

After lots of research into different things happening all over the world, we came up with the idea of having a light show which highlighted the landscape and the beauty of the gardens.

Last year we had more than 170,000 visitors, a lot of them coming after Christmas Day as I think people want to keep that festive magic going.

Every January we start contacting international light artists who will then interpret the garden in various ways. We’re working within a heritage landscape with lots of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings so we have to be sensitive to that.

We’re also building the trail in the midst of a large-scale visitor attraction, so we have to make sure setting up the lights doesn’t impact daytime guests.

This year we’ve got our first laser light show but because we’re so close to Heathrow, we’ve had to have lots of conversations with the Civil Aviation Authority.

In the run-up to opening it’s all hands on deck, from the people knocking in the posts to mark out the trail, to the marketing team who promote it.

I get a real buzz out of walking alongside people as they do the trail. The Palm House light show at the end is always the most spectacular, but I like the more intimate things like the scented fire garden.

You’d never expect to walk through flames in a place like Kew Gardens and this year it’s based on the five gold rings. Each ring will have more than 100 separate points of fire on it.

For me the best thing about the event is that it’s like a piece of theatre. It’s only here for six weeks so it’s about capturing a moment and that’s what makes it special.

Christmas at Kew Gardens runs until 2 January. For details, visit kew.org