| A born natural |
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| Written by Penny Kitchen, 2008 | |
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Kate Humble's love of nature and her enthusiasm make her the ideal RSPB Vice-president, while her fresh 'outdoor girl-next-door' looks endear her to TV programmers. Penny Kitchen braved the March winds at the Newport Wetlands Reserve to meet her
On a windy, overcast day last March the Woman's World's photographer and I were at the Newport Wetlands to meet popular wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble. It was the official opening of an RSPB Visitor Centre and for a while flocks of local dignitaries and photographers outnumbered the birds. Kate was unfazed, chatting animatedly with everyone. Her natural manner and enthusiasm on television were being put to good use in her new role as Vice-president of the RSPB. She was to lead a group of us round the Reserve and it wasn't long before she and photographer Charlie were discussing the relative merits of wellies, which he had wisely brought along with his camera gear. You could tell the officials from the twitchers by their attire - Kate herself was in a favourite brown waxed jacket, blue jeans and chunky shoes, her binoculars slung around her neck. She wore no make-up and her trademark wavy hair with its blonde streaks was whipped round her head by the wind blowing in off the Severn estuary. The press were in heaven - Kate Humble is not only pretty, vivacious and very photogenic, but she answered everyone's questions with friendly candour and genuine enthusiasm for wildlife and conservation. The BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch have brought Kate and her co-presenters Bill Oddie and Simon King into everyone's sitting room for a fortnight twice a year. Who would have thought that the nation would be gripped by the fate of a nest box full of baby blue tits - but we were! And what about those beavers... and the reluctant badgers...? This year, after five years in Devon, the production is moving to Norfolk where a recurrent theme will be one close to Kate's heart - protecting Britain's marine environment. "It is something we haven't really covered in the programmes before," says Kate who, I discover later in our interview, is clearly very worked up about the subject. The change of scene will prevent the people involved in making the programme from getting stale, she says, along with providing an opportunity to show different habitats and wildlife. Scary TVOne of the charms of these live programmes is the fact that anything can - and often does - happen. "When I first started doing live television I was so scared I used to throw up from nerves after every programme," she says with a laugh. "But I've got over that now.When you combine the unpredictability of wildlife with the unpredictability of live telly, you never know what's going to happen - or not happen, as with the case of the camera-shy badgers. The wildlife doesn't know it's on telly, doesn't know it's supposed to turn up between 8pm and 9pm, so will do exactly what it likes! "We have an earpiece in and we hear someone counting down seconds to air - 10, 9, 8, 7.... And I think, oh no, what are we going to talk about for the next hour?! But that's what makes it so exciting to do. It's seat-of-your-pants telly." In spring 2007 the wildlife stars of the previous season - a family of blue tits - were conspicuously absent. "But instead we had an astonishing family of owls," says Kate. "The stronger babies proceeded to eat the weak ones - it was brutal but that's nature." So how did 39-year-old Kate come to develop her passion for nature? "I was never a child who went off and collected bugs and things - they were just there, in the garden and the fields around where I grew up in Berkshire. But when you grow up and get a job, live in London as we did, it is so easy to miss nature. Instead of university I went to Africa for a year, on my own with £800, and I absolutely loved it. I didn't think of it as risk-taking - well, at 19 you think you're indestructible, don't you?" During her time in Africa, Kate got into birding and wildlife and realised this was what she wanted to do with her life. "In a way it was daft because we have great wildlife here in the UK," she says. "All right, we don't have lions and giraffes, but we have some amazing birds and some beautiful natural areas in this country. I think I fell into the trap of thinking you can only enjoy a wildlife spectacle if you go somewhere else. "When I lived in London we had about a 10ft square garden but I had my feeders out. I just attracted pigeons mostly, a little family of mice under the bird table and a squirrel, but it didn't matter. I could go to the park and see wildlife and I think you can even live in a flat and see wildlife in a window-box!" She insists she is "not an expert in any way, shape or form", just someone who loves the countryside and wildlife. She worries that the "wildlife industry" can seem quite exclusive and daunting: say for instance, you haven't got the right clothes or aren't a member of this or that organisation. She illustrates her point with someone who goes to a reserve and watches the birds from a hide, feeling a bit awkward because they don't know what those birds are. "If you asked someone they would probably be more than happy to tell you, but there is something intimidating about trying to break into that fraternity. The most important thing I can do is to urge anyone go out, enjoy, and ask questions. That's what I do - I learn something every single day." We return to her job on Springwatch and Autumnwatch, and I ask what it's like to play the foil to her co-host Bill Oddie. Kate is amusingly frank. "I honestly never know what Bill is going to say next - the programmes are not remotely scripted! Simon [King] and Bill each have a huge knowledge, but I'm just like the viewers sitting on the sofa at home - I'm there asking the questions everyone else wants to ask. Our aim is to encourage people to find out things for themselves and to open up the natural world so that it isn't threatening or overwhelming. The great thing about Springwatch and Autumnwatch is that it is about the wildlife in everyone's back garden." Advance preparation for the programmes includes some filming beforehand and Kate researches anything they are likely to encounter, such as Britain's marine environment. Kate is adamant that the Marine Bill "shouldn't be just some flimsy bit of government paper but is meaningful. It is staggering that in this country we take such good care of our land nature reserves but we don't take care of the sea. We could have tougher regulation and we must have areas that are left alone." |
