{"id":178536,"date":"2025-06-12T13:59:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178536\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T13:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:59:17","slug":"my-day-on-the-set-of-springwatch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178536\/","title":{"rendered":"My day on the set of Springwatch"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 2.45pm on a Thursday afternoon and on the edge of the Peak District\u2019s Hope Valley, sheltered from the rain in a fairy-lit tipi, Chris Packham<\/a> and Michaela Strachan<\/a> are preparing for the evening\u2019s Springwatch and find themselves in a disagreement about the hornet hoverfly.<\/p>\n

As they zoom in to a close-up shot of the fat, fluffy insect, Packham (Prada bucket hat, orange anorak) wonders, \u201cAre we going to have the Latin name on the screen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we should have the Latin names at all,\u201d says Strachan (no bucket hat, red anorak), in a tone that makes me suspect they\u2019ve had this conversation before. \u201cHardly anyone cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean nobody cares?\u201d says Packham with comic outrage. \u201cChris, you\u2019re a nerd,\u201d she replies. \u201cMost people don\u2019t have a clue.\u201d They move on to the other beasts on the agenda (wren, tree pipit, red-tailed bumblebee) and six hours later, as the show goes out live, she is triumphant. (For those who do care, the Latin name was Volucella zonaria.)<\/p>\n

Springwatch is the only programme on TV with a chance at getting the general public to feel invested in the function and fate of a hoverfly (\u201cThey\u2019re REALLY INTERESTING, STICK WITH ME!\u201d pleads Strachan to the camera during rehearsal).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only programme that would give the hoverfly proper air time, the only programme that would use a prop made out of cardboard and an old sock to explain how it pupates from the rat-tailed maggot, and certainly the only one on which its presenter (Packham, obviously) will stick that hanging rat tail in his mouth and pretend to smoke it like a hookah, live on BBC Two at 9pm.<\/p>\n

\"ChrisThis year\u2019s Springwatch is on the National Trust Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire (Photo: BBC Studios\/Pat McKeeman)<\/p>\n

But that is exactly why it has survived for 20 years. Accessible, funny, playful, fastidious, teeming with digestible facts and buoyed by the chemistry of its presenters \u2013 originally Bill Oddie, Kate Humble and Simon King and now Packham and Strachan, with their 35-year friendship \u2013 this annual three-week wildlife fiesta is about much more than chicks hatching (though there are a lot of those, too). <\/p>\n

As I learn during a day on set at the National Trust\u2019s Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire, Springwatch is a testament to the value of public service broadcasting in the face of more than one existential threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis programme reignites that childlike curiosity that we\u2019re all born with,\u201d Strachan tells me in her trailer, where she sits next to a shelf of Graze snacks and mango slices. She\u2019s reading over the evening\u2019s running order (subject to change \u2013 sometimes the scheduled animals have been eaten and they have to<\/a> change it all around) and writing up her notes (Packham never writes any). She concedes that even for her, first thing in the morning, the hoverfly was a bit of a hard sell.<\/p>\n

But by now she\u2019s learned about how they transform their bodies to mimic more dangerous species and ward off predators, and as is the case every day on this job, an ordinary creature has become more thrilling than any exotic one. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do lions do?\u201d she asks. \u201cThey sleep all day, and yet everyone wants to see a lion. If I said, \u2018Shall I take you on safari to see a hoverfly?\u2019, you probably wouldn\u2019t be quite so enthusiastic. But once you get into the detail of those smaller things, it is absolutely incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TelevisionSpringwatch\u2019s original line up: Kate Humble, Simon King and Bill Oddie (Photo: BBC\/Rob Cousins)<\/p>\n

The detail of smaller things feels like Springwatch\u2019s guiding principle. It is both what allows us to consider how every living thing fits into the environmental bigger picture \u2013 more on that later \u2013 and it\u2019s what makes the stories it tells so gripping.<\/p>\n

Argy bargy badgers, a \u201cglamour couple\u201d of kingfishers fighting intruders, a fox creeping into a field of deer for some \u201cfawn falafel\u201d \u2013 all of these are spotted by the team in the \u201cstory truck\u201d. In this dark trailer, lit by a kaleidoscope of screens, researchers monitor the nests in 20 locations across the site for 24 hours a day as little dramas and miracles unfold.<\/p>\n

Every morning, the researchers report back on the day\u2019s action to decide what characters and cliffhangers will make it into that night\u2019s show. Buzzards and birds of prey are boring, I\u2019m told; the general consensus is that owls are the favourites, and everyone agrees that the small birds are the most interesting. It doesn\u2019t take long in the truck before I realise why watching them becomes addictive. These little universes are entrancing, and when things start to kick off \u2013 a birth, a bit of predation, some light cannibalism \u2013 everyone gathers around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to watch this intimately and not see the personalities,\u201d <\/strong>says wildlife story producer Ruth Peacey. \u201cYou\u2019re not meant to anthropomorphise\u201d she says, but they take the psychology of wildlife seriously.<\/p>\n

And observing the animals so closely means they do grow attached to them \u2013 and naturally want to interfere when something is coming to harm (they are left alone but teams on the site will remove plastic from nests). \u201cIt\u2019s an emotional experience,\u201d she says. \u201cYou want to stop it unfolding but know you can\u2019t. It\u2019s heart-wrenching. You have to remind yourself of what would happen in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"InsideThe nest cameras inside the story truck (Photo: Francesca Sostero)<\/p>\n

Indeed, the day before I visit, the brutality of mother nature was on full, gory display as a short-eared owl ate its own sibling. Some online complained that it was shown.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut hold on, that\u2019s the truth,\u201d says Packham, bemused, when we speak in a big tent in front of about eight different recycling bins that he insisted on. \u201cThat\u2019s what happened. It is gruesome. Things eat one another. Did everyone who complained about that not go to a supermarket and buy some packaged meat and eat it all? The only separation is the fact that they didn\u2019t see the cow being kept in a shed all of its life and then be slaughtered in a horrible abattoir and packaged for profit.\u201d (Packham is vegan.)<\/p>\n

He breathes. \u201cDon\u2019t get me going. Our job is to show the truth. If we hid that, we would lose public trust. We\u2019ve earned public trust over years and years of making natural history programmes by telling people the truth, and sometimes owls eat one another. Yum, yum.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the critical thing about Springwatch. It does not exist to tell happy, cosy stories about woodland critters.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate breakdown is not some imaginary existential thing,\u201d says Packham. \u201cThis is manifesting in front of our eyes and our cameras. The changes we\u2019ve seen are absolutely phenomenal, and it\u2019s got to the point where it\u2019s gone beyond worrying now. It\u2019s terrifying. Trying to find a method of communicating that urgency, but also generating an affinity, is where this programme lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have time to do anything where there\u2019s not a vocational component,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m 64 years old. This is decaying as rapidly as I am. It\u2019s going to hell in a handcart out there and I\u2019ve really got to do everything that I can within my small amount of power to effect change.\u201d<\/p>\n

That requires him to explain things like, for example, why warmer weather affects when a blue tit fledges, and what that means for the breeding periods of other animals, in the simplest terms possible. \u201cMy mission is to imagine that I\u2019m in a pub talking to a group of people who are interested in the same subject as I am,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But getting people to care about animals is one thing \u2013 getting them to understand the bigger picture is another. \u201cWe really struggle in Natural History broadcasting to get people to understand ecology\u201d, he says. Why cutting down woodland is important, why deer populations need to be managed. Mention that, and \u201cAll of a sudden you\u2019re shooting Bambi. We can\u2019t get past that emotional engagement. I\u2019ll probably be working on that all my life, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Packham and Michaela Strachan in rehearsals (Photo: BBC Studios\/Pat McKeeman)<\/p>\n

Packham thinks the messaging around climate breakdown has been all wrong. It\u2019s been presented to the public as an abstract, \u201cphenomenal\u201d problem that\u2019s out of our hands \u2013 something global over which we have no control. To change that, he thinks you need to engender people to local environments and to \u201ctangible\u201d animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, despite the fact that we claim to be a nation of animal lovers,\u201d he says. \u201cOur role on this programme is to say, \u2018Look how brilliant this is. Cherish it. It\u2019s part of your community.\u2019 Which is why we\u2019re not doing golden eagles. We\u2019re doing robins. They\u2019re in everyone\u2019s back garden. People love their robins.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re in everyone\u2019s back garden \u2013 people love their robins,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe made the polar bear a symbol of climate breakdown on a melting iceberg. Have you seen a polar bear? Poor choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springwatch\u2018s ecological commitment extends to how it is made, too. In a new scheme this year, leftover food from the set is redistributed in nearby Sheffield and Chesterfield, the crew\u2019s menus are becoming more plant-based, and the show is the world\u2019s first outside broadcast production to run entirely on energy from a hydrogen generator that produces zero emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWimbledon ought to be using that,\u201d Packham says. \u201cAll of the BBC outside broadcasts ought to be using that. Glastonbury ought to be. I\u2019ve rammed that down Tim Davie\u2019s neck so many times. Every time I see him, I bang on about the hydrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he mentions the Director General, <\/strong>I wonder how much the team here are feeling the BBC\u2019s cuts<\/a> \u2013 Springwatch\u2019s budget has been slashed, Autumnwatch was reduced to a segment on The One Show a few years ago. Strachan feels the story is a bit overdone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, budgets are smaller, but you either moan about it or you say, \u2018Yes, they are, isn\u2019t it great that we can still do the programme on this budget?\u2019 Little cuts have been made, but I think we cover that really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packham is more outspoken. \u201cThey\u2019re shrinking on all the costs, yeah, because the BBC has been mistreated by a succession of governments. And that\u2019s something that really does perturb me because I very much cherish the BBC\u2019s need for impartiality\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we\u2019ve got GB News and those sorts of malevolent forces to deal with we must be fighting for the BBC harder than ever. I test the limits of editorial policy because of my need to campaign to look after the environment and animal welfare. But I test the limits of something which I know, cherish and love.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe production gallery get ready for the live show (Photo: Francesca Sostero)<\/p>\n

The greater challenges the BBC faces, the more important Springwatch is. Because beyond opening people\u2019s eyes to wildlife and telling them what to look for in their own environment, this production \u2013 which starts in earnest in February\/March \u2013 provides an opportunity to experiment with ways that the BBC can reach and retain future audiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single person who comes to work here is thoroughly embedded in this project, and also desirous of making sure that we put every penny on screen,\u201d Packham says.<\/p>\n

That includes things like the companion show Watch Out, which goes behind the scenes and introduces some of the people working in nature and conservation. It includes the nest live streams on BBC iPlayer<\/a>, which are used to experiment with technology and formats that then shape live coverage of events like VE Day, sports, and music festivals. It includes Springwatch Street, a new segment in which researcher and bird fanatic Jack Baddams explores the gardens of nearby Sheffield residents.<\/p>\n

All of these are ways to build the Springwatch digital presence and deliver the brand to viewers in new ways \u2013 and try things out that can be applied elsewhere on the BBC. Future-proofing means optimising programmes for the platforms used by younger people, making content that\u2019s shareable, and being imaginative about how to find and engage people who might not watch terrestrial TV \u2013 whether it leads them to the main show or not. I\u2019m informed that the cutest animals are the most popular on TikTok live \u2013 and spiders can turn people off.<\/p>\n

At 5pm, it\u2019s time for the rehearsal. An owl glides down its first common shrew \u201cin one\u201d, Iolo Williams reports on some \u201cbanana-ing seals\u201d from Rathlin Island in Northern Ireland, and Packham, wearing some elf ears under his bucket hat, wonders if there\u2019s a \u201chappier\u201d shot of the northern hairy wood ants (the ones they\u2019ve got look a bit miserable). He and Strachan are laughing almost all of the time.<\/p>\n

I watch the live show in the gallery truck, another dizzying wall of screens, where producers guide the presenters through the show, finishing each live segment with a \u201cwell done\u201d and smiling to themselves at every ad-lib. Everyone holds their breath when we spot four little badgers scampering out of their set on one of the nest cameras, hoping that they\u2019ll still be visible in a few seconds when the current VT is over.<\/p>\n

No joy \u2013 they\u2019ve disappeared into the brush. So there\u2019s a last-minute decision to go to the song thrush before Packham and Strachan explain the life cycle of that hornet hoverfly with impressive simplicity using the rat-tailed maggot prop, whose wet glue has only just finished being hair-dried. Other science programmes might be able to afford flashy digital graphics and diagrams, but the presenter won\u2019t pretend to smoke a bar chart at the end of the show \u2013 and where\u2019s the fun in that?<\/p>\n

One of Springwatch\u2019s many running jokes, repeated after an especially nerdy or ridiculous segment, is, \u201cNow that\u2019s what you pay the licence fee for!\u201d But it\u2019s true. This is TV with purpose \u2013 and it might be the most Reithian thing on the BBC.<\/p>\n

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