Summary
Clare Balding walks with naturalist, author & TV presenter, Steve Backshall. Together they stroll along his favourite stretch of the Thames from Bourne End to Boulter's Lock in Buckinghamshire.
Steve is best known for presenting CBBC's 'Deadly 60', and has recently started writing children's fiction - his first book is 'Tiger Wars', about a group of renegade children who become involved with tiger poaching in India.
He spends a lot of time filming abroad so Clare was lucky to catch up with him on his home patch. As they wander along the Thames, Steve explains that his love of the outdoors began when - as a child - his parents sent him and his sister out to play and told them not to come back until it was dark. This kind of 'feral' (as he put it) freedom developed in him an enduring passion for the natural world.
Producer: Karen Gregor.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I want to tell you why I love podcasting. Hi, my name's Tommy Dixon, |
| 0:06.3 | and I make podcasts for the BBC. I'm a big fan of stories, always loved a good book. But when I started |
| 0:12.0 | commuting for my first job, I discovered podcasts. I was blown away by how a creative idea and the right |
| 0:17.8 | mixture of sounds could take you into a whole new world full of incredible stories. You know, the type that make you go, wow. And that kind of inspired me to |
| 0:25.2 | give it a go myself, which to cut a long story short led to a BBC training scheme and a whole |
| 0:29.9 | new career giving other people that exact same feeling. So if you want to hear amazing stories |
| 0:34.1 | that make you go wow like I did, they're just a tap or click away on BBC |
| 0:38.0 | sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | This is a download from the BBC. It's Ramblings on Radio 4 with me, Claire Boulding. |
| 0:47.0 | Today on Ramblings, as a narrow boat chugs up the Thames and is about to come under the bridge |
| 0:51.7 | that we're standing on, I am the envy of children all over the country because I'm walking with one of their heroes, |
| 0:58.4 | the presenter of Deadly 60, the man who knows more about wildlife than anyone on the planet. |
| 1:03.1 | I'm not exaggerating Steve Baxhaw because you are it. |
| 1:06.3 | And kids must come up to you all the time and go, oh wow, and ask you 100 million questions |
| 1:11.8 | about all the crazy animals that you've spent time with? |
| 1:14.7 | They do, but they also tell me stuff as well. |
| 1:17.3 | It's one of the great things about kids is that they are total sponges for information and for facts, |
| 1:22.4 | and they will tell me stuff that I never knew before. |
| 1:25.6 | And I mean, I guess I was exactly the same. |
| 1:27.8 | When I was eight years old, I just used to actually read wildlife encyclopedias. |
| 1:31.8 | That used to be my reading. |
| 1:32.9 | And I would, I'd just memorize all the facts, and that's what kids do. |
... |
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