BARRIE HUDSON chats to wildlife expert Chris Packham

WILDLIFE guru extraordinaire Chris Packham is heading for Swindon.

He’ll be at the Wyvern Theatre on Monday, July 7 to deliver a one man show.

A Wild Night Out! is billed as an entertaining and informative look at some of nature’s most popular and interesting species, illustrated with his own photographs.

“It’s not a lecture so much as a talk,” said Chris, 53, whose face is familiar to millions thanks to Springwatch and other popular wildlife programmes on the television.

He added: “It’s designed to be as involving and engaging as possible, and there’ll be plenty of time for questions at the end.”

Much of the talk will deal with carnivores and how we relate to them; Britain’s wildlife within historic memory included wolves, bears and wild boar, for example, but these species have long since become extinct here.

He contrasts our situation with that of people in other countries who live alongside lions and tigers, and whose attitudes to those creatures might be different from ours.

As he points out: “They’re not eating our livelihoods – or eating our families...”

Chris holds a degree in zoology and began training as a wildlife cameraman before crossing to the other side of the lens.

His interest in nature goes back a long way, but he never had a burning desire to become a presenter, let alone a celebrity.

“Not ever,” he said. “it was never an ambition.

“From the age of 11 onwards I wanted to study animals, but this was nothing I aspired to do. It was something I fell into. I suppose, looking back, I had a passion to communicate my own enthusiasm.”

That enthusiasm has been with him since childhood: he remembers, for example, finding and examining a dead tawny owl and talking about it with his family for hours.

Chris is a strong believer in putting young people in touch with nature as early as possible.

“We don’t even know where our food comes from,” he said. “We don’t see it growing and we don’t see the processes it requires.

“There’s that detachment from the countryside.”

 Tickets for Chris’s Wyvern appearance, which starts at 7.30pm, cost £17 with various concessions available. The box office is on 01793 524481 or you can visit swindontheatres.co.uk.