Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is one of the UK's

best known naturalists and environmental campaigners, Chris Packham. He has an infectious

enthusiasm for detail, which has given millions of TV viewers a new appreciation of the

complexities of bird, insect and mammal

behaviour. But his career is also marked by a determination to confront the human factors

threatening the sustainability of the natural world. His campaigns against commercial hunting

and a major UK rail project have seen him subjected to threats and intimidation.

He's also spoken publicly of his own mental health. In his youth he suffered bouts of severe depression,

and in midlife he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which he says has been a driver of his single-minded

passion for the natural world. In this era of COVID-19, with economic activity slowed across

the world and many of us reconnecting with nature, is there a possibility that we humans could

fundamentally reassess our priorities?

Chris, thanks so much for inviting me to your home, but also this woodland, which I know means so much to you.

Yes, well, this is my ecological home. There's no question of that. I love this patch of woodland. I feel more connected to this

place than anywhere else on earth. It's an environment that I grew up in, this oak, hazel, bit of

ash, bit of yew, woodland. And I'm comfortable here with all the colours, the sounds, the

smells. It's a wonderful place to be able to spend my time. And I've spent more of it here

this spring than ever before. I was going to say, the coronavirus pandemic, it's a wonderful place to be able to spend my time. And I've spent more of it here this spring than ever before.

I was going to say, the coronavirus pandemic, it's affected us all. How has it actually affected your life?

My mother always used to say you've got to find some good and some bad. And we've had terrible bad this spring and summer.

But I've found good here because I've come to this place on a twice

daily basis at least and I've reconnected with nature in a way that I haven't done since my teens

...