Springwatch goes punk!

27/05/2009

As Chris Packham goes wild again he tells us he's going back to his punk roots

BY VICKY DAVIDSON
Filling the place of affable twitcher Bill Oddie next to effervescent sidekick Kate Humble on the Springwatch sofa is no small order. Nor is fitting into the team that for the last four years has had almost four million viewers glued to their sets nightly for three weeks each May as they watch the gripping dramas of Great British nature, with all its tragedy and triumphs, unfold live via ‘nest-cam’ and ‘badger-cam’.

But Chris Packham, 49 – zoology graduate, Really Wild Show ’80s heart-throb and one time punk – is more than up for the gig. It helps that Oddie is an old pal and, despite being unable to speak to his successor directly because he is in hospital working through his latest bout of depression, has apparently given Packham a nod of approval.

“I’m very flattered,” he says, behind a hint of distress at being asked to discuss his beleaguered friend. “He has given me his blessing and said if someone was going to do it, it would be me. I think the reason is that I come from similar roots. 

“We may be 20 years apart but we’ve both had firm interest in the natural world from a very early age and for the rest of our lives. He’s an ageing hippy and I’m a punk rocker – it’s a different hairstyle, different musical references, and I’m slightly younger, but the passion comes from the same place: we want to change the world so it’s a better place for wildlife.”

It is Packham’s punk ethic – a savvy, never mind the bollocks, just get out there and do it approach – that is set to give Springwatch a shot in the arm when it launches on May 25.

More than anything, he wants young kids to have the opportunities he had to discover a passion for the world of nature, and he doesn’t mince words over his “hatred” of Britain’s “health and safety complex” that is keeping kids from connecting with nature the same way he was able to.

“Kids need to play on their own, socialise and climb trees and fall out of them and break legs and scuff and cut themselves. It’s part of growing up. Some will be climbing trees to find birds’ nests; if they disturb a few, well, at the end of the day it might ignite a passion to protect wildlife. I think we have to accept the small amount of damage done in the grand scheme of things,” he argues.

“We have got to lay off legislation, lay off the cotton wool. If only we could get back to common sense that would be great.”

Packham’s earliest experience of nature was in his home’s suburban back garden. “My parents say I was crawling around picking things up. I had a natural curiosity and they allowed me to keep lots of animals at home, it was a menagerie for most of my youth. I ended up with badgers, owls and foxes. You can learn so much from keeping animals.

“Sometimes I question keeping certain animals in captivity but the amount you learn is unquestionable.”

However, it would be wrong to mistake his egalitarian attitude for part of the dumbed-down celebrity-hosted documentary wave pervading the BBC’s factual output these days. Packham vehemently dislikes the trend towards over-simplification. “I say, ‘There’s a dictionary’. I’m really keen on information. I’m not a dumb-downer by any stretch, I refuse. 

“I draw a line in the sand. I fully accept if you become too high-brow you become exclusive, but I see it as a challenge to communicate relatively complex things to people. People like learning, knowing things they can go and tell people down the pub.

“I’m conscious of the fact that Springwatch is a show, not a programme, but I want to inform people why things are happening.”

That equally applies to the youngsters he hopes will follow his footsteps: “I’ve always spoken to kids like they’re adults. By the time they get to seven or eight these days they are quite sophisticated compared to how I was. That’s a good thing. I’m not intimidated by that at all. 

“I have very broad interests anyway and I do my best to make sure I involve as many aspects of that audience as possible through cultural references. I’m happy to talk about Girls Aloud and the Battle of Agincourt, and get to audiences that way. 

"My father won’t know who Girls Aloud are but he knows the Battle of Agincourt.”

Packham is unfazed by working not just with any old animals but naturally elusive wild creatures on live TV, which is just as well since Springwatch has been known to veer into occasional bouts of anarchy as the running schedule gets thrown out the barn door. On past experience, it’s not uncommon for owl chicks to shuffle out of the sight of nest-cam or for badgers to defiantly go to ground as soon as the cameras are turned on. The location crew often find themselves perched on a rugged coast, otter-less and all alone.

Packham is relaxed about it, though. “We’ll have a meeting in the morning to look at prospective running orders, look at our nest-cams, how Simon [King] is getting on with his particular quest, which this year takes him to Wales, what expectations are with Gordon [Buchanan, resident badger-spotter]. We’ll draw up a fanciful running order but it’s governed by the weather and how it impacts upon the wildlife,” he explains. 

“We know if it’s been absolutely thumping down with rain, poor Gordon won’t get any badgers.

“That reactive centre keeps it fresh and interesting. If anything exceptional or dramatic that we know won’t be repeated live – like the weasel invading a warbler’s nest which you would never see normally – is going on we’ll film a package for that. 

“I’m hoping rehearsals won’t be full on, for me that takes the freshness out of it. I tend to save myself for the actual performance, if you like. I’ll keep it close to my chest – terrify the producer!”

What is most appealing to Packham about taking over the hot seat on Springwatch is not the prime-time living room invasion, but the outreach work it encourages. He proudly points out that nine million people across the UK have become involved with creating their own mini-wildlife reserves because of the show. 

“If we go off tomorrow, it will have left a legacy. It just takes one kid to watch that programme, one parent to take them to the zoo in the back of the car, to see something that makes them go ‘wow’,” says

Packham. “If one spotty, sweaty boy does that after one of my broadcasts, he will be standing in my shoes in years to come.”

He admits that his punk past (playing “guitar, badly” and listening to The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Undertones and later The Jesus and Mary Chain) is what has given him the attitude for which he’s become a hero for generations of telly viewers. “If someone closes the door in my face I will kick it down. I believe that I can make a difference – and that’s what it was like at that time. We didn’t want to wait to learn to play our instruments. We bought guitars for 10 quid; played garages because we could make a noise,” says Packham.

“It did change music forever: art, fashion, attitude. There is a generation of old punks out there making a difference. Bob Geldof; Live Aid: case closed.” 

Springwatch is screened daily from Monday, May 25, BBC Two, for three weeks