Michaela Strachan brings her wildlife show to Guildford this month. But she wasn’t always an outdoor girl. Jane McGowan finds nature taking its course...
Michaela Strachan has been a regular face on UK television for almost 40 years. Cutting her teeth on kids’ shows such as Wacaday, alongside 80s favourite Timmy Mallett, she has gone on to host programmes from late-night cult classic The Hitman and Her to Sunday night staple Countryfile.
Now, after years at the helm of Springwatch and its seasonal siblings – Winterwatch and, until 2022, Autumnwatch – she is one of the most loved and respected nature presenters on our screens.
Yet it might have been so different. For a career spent championing the countryside is a far cry from what the girl from Hinchley Wood had planned.
“Oh no, I didn’t think about nature at all,” laughs the 59-year-old, who brings her new live show A Wild Evening to Guildford’s
G Live this month. “For me it was all about ballet, jazz and tap. I went to Chadsworth Stage School in Claygate from the age of three and it was my life. I lived and breathed it. My whole childhood was spent singing, dancing and performing.”
Educated at Claremont Fan Court School in Esher, the teenage Michaela divided her time between dance practice, her part-time job at the Wimpy in Walton-on-Thames and enjoying the pulsating nightlife of Oxshott and Cobham – which, in reality, meant the ‘Vic’ and the Plough. Surrey, she says, was definitely her haunt.
Michaela Strachan
In time, her love of the stage led her to study musical theatre at the prestigious Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick, although she never finished the course.
Instead, she landed a job in the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which toured for 18 months before arriving in the West End.
Then an audition for a new Saturday show, Wide Awake Club, saw her swap her newfound stage success for the mayhem and madness of early morning children’s TV.
It was crazy, she says, but she loved it. And when the chance came to test for a new children’s wildlife programme, she was already establishing herself on the young presenter scene.
“I fell into wildlife television, which I know really upsets people who have tried really, really hard to get into it,” she admits.
“Basically, ITV and Channel 4 were doing a show called Owl TV, which was fronted by the children themselves. What they needed was a grown-up presenter just to link it all together.”
Michaela had “very little knowledge” of the subject, but was very sympathetic to issues such as animal welfare.
“The more I learned, the more engaged I became,” she explains. “Then I got poached by the BBC to do The Really Wild Show and that‘s where my knowledge and my passion really grew.
“To this day, I would never describe myself as a wildlife expert. I wouldn’t want that label, as I don’t have the scientific background. But it has taken me a long time to recognise that what I do has just as much worth. I am a communicator.”
Michaela Strachan
It was The Really Wild Show that first paired Michaela with conservationist Chris Packham. And it’s the blend of his knowledge with her desire to learn and the need to communicate it all to an audience, she believes, that explains why they work so well together.
“He has that very geeky side to him, whereby he knows all the facts, and I can then tailor that with questions that I think the audience would want to ask. That way, we get more of a story.”
Nature presenting changed her. As the face of such shows as Countryfile and Springwatch, Michaela could not help but immerse herself in the great outdoors – not only on screen, but off it.
“When I was growing up, or when I was dancing, the thought of going for a hike would not have entered my mind. But now getting outside at the earliest opportunity is part of my daily life.
“I think this is very important to understand. Just because you’re not passionate about something at 13, it doesn’t mean you won’t be at 23 or 33 or 53. Interests change and grow.
“Yes, there are the Chris Packhams of this world who were probably studying lizards at the age of two. I was all about the ballet shoes, but things change and we are both equally passionate about nature now.”
At G Live, Michaela will be joined by a host of well-known nature presenters, including Gordon Buchanan MBE (Big Cats 24/7, Our Changing Planet), Lizzie Daly (The One Show, That’s Just Wild) and Hannah Stitfall (The One Show, Springwatch). The show will lift the lid on the real-life adventures that don’t make it to air.
“There is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, like how someone got a particular shot, and plenty of reminiscing too. The four of us are all very different from each other and have very different stories to tell.”
One of the things that viewers most often ask Michaela is how presenters and film crew can just stand by when animals are at risk. In fact, she explains, it is rarely appropriate to step in.
“A lot is done via hidden cameras, so we don’t often get close to the animals or birds. Sometimes it is hard not to get involved, but the only time we would do so is when humans have created a problem.
Michaela Strachan
“For instance, on one shoot there was a bird’s nest in a traffic cone. We realised that the chicks were never going to get to the top and fly out, meaning they would die in the cone. Humans had created that scenario, so we moved the nest. But we wouldn’t stop a predator from hunting down those chicks. That’s nature. That’s wildlife. You can’t stop that from happening.
“It’s brutal, what nature does – and not only to other species. We see birds pecking their own chicks to death and eating them live. It is hard to witness that stuff and just stand back.”
Nevertheless, says Michaela, it is important for people to see what really goes on and the production teams are committed to not ‘Disney-fying’ any of the footage.
“If it’s happening and we have our cameras on it, we are going to show it. Sometimes we edit out the really gruesome, gory stuff, as it would make viewers feel physically sick. But on the whole, we leave it to nature.
“I really hope the show gives people an insight into making these programmes. But it should also be full of inspirational stuff that will help to keep the audience connected to nature and wildlife itself.”
A Wild Evening is at G Live, Guildford on November 23. To book visit: awildevening.co.uk.
