Interview with Chris Packham

What’s the best thing about working on Autumnwatch?
It’s the collective skill, effort and enthusiasm of the team. It’s great to be in a workplace where everyone is so focused and driven on producing the best programme that they can.

I think there’s a real synergy when you move into an environment when everyone is giving 100 percent; then there’s no option but to give 100 percent even if you thought otherwise. I personally don’t struggle because I really look forward to it, there’s a real sense of event. It’s something I look forward to with anticipation and excitement. It’s a programme that has been going for at least ten years and the fact that everyone still lifts their game to such an extent is fantastic and it makes it a good place to be.

What are you looking forward to about the new series?
The same thing I always look forward to - learning new things. I have a great passion for British natural history, I’m 56 and have been looking at it all my life but I know that I’m going to learn something new and maybe see something new and that’s always a personal highlight. I’m sure it will be challenging as ever.

Autumn and Winterwatch are more difficult series to watch than Springwatch, but that makes it a test of the inventiveness and the imagination of the team. For me it’s about those unexpected surprises. You go into it and end up learning something new about something you’ve never previously thought about, and if you’re really lucky you get to see something new on one of the cameras which is fantastic.

Do you have a favourite memory from previous Autumnwatch series?
Last year was fantastic when Martin was going out to catch Woodcocks in the dark. It was one of those impossible tasks where I thought, give the man a torch and send him out in a field? It’s a great idea but it’s never going to work. Then of course they caught one. It was so brilliant. Those are the sort of moments that are highlights. I wasn’t directly involved with that but it’s about the team effort to make the programme good - and when Martin was with the Woodcock it was awesome. 

Given that all the ‘watches’ are live, how do you prepare for a live show? Do you get nervous or excited? How do you deal with things that don’t go to plan?
I never get nervous but I always get excited. I relish the challenge, because you know it’s going to be a challenge because when things don’t show up at the right time - or sometimes they don’t show up at all - but that is part of the joy of the programme, it’s the reality of wildlife.

We are obviously tasked with making it an hour long and keeping it interesting, keeping the narrative going, but I always think to myself I’m about to have a conversation with a group of like-minded people sat around a table at the pub. That’s my outlook. You obviously want that conversation to be entertaining and informative and enthusiastic, and to be honest that isn’t such a great challenge, those bits are the easy bits. It’s illustrating it that can be the tricky part because obviously we’re relying on animals to turn up. It’s great fun.

What are your top tips for people at home to be more wildlife friendly in autumn?
Winter is coming so it’s a time where animals are stocking up. If they’re not stocking up in the sense that they’re storing food, then they’re stocking up on their own body reserves. It’s a good time to start thinking about feeding the animals in your community. Order some bird feeders, order twice the amount of food you did last year and then set them nice and close to the window so that you get good payback for your outlay when you’ve got a great view of the animals.

Save your table scraps; if it’s not edible and going in the compost bin then take it out at night and leave it for mammals that might visit, foxes, badgers, hedgehogs etc. Make sure they aren’t too close to the house, we don’t want them associating humans with food because that leads to conflict - but again put them somewhere that you and your family can watch them.

We’re getting into planting season, so have a think about what you can plant over the winter. If you’ve got space for a Rowan tree or an Elder tree put that in because you know it’s going to produce lots of nectarines and berries next year. Animals are preparing for winter so give them a helping hand and do it in a way that you can enjoy your generosity.

Highlight films

Willow Emerald Damselfly
A shimmer of metallic green and a flicker of delicate wings, the spectacular Willow Emerald Damselfly is a recent colonist to the UK - first appearing in recordable numbers in 2009. Unusually for damselflies, this species is an autumn breeder, laying their eggs in a surprising place, well out of the water. We follow their story; from the mating dance to egg laying in the last of summer warmth.

Fulmars - the flying dustbins
Raymond Besant is a cameraman with a passion for fulmars. He learnt his trade filming these beautiful seabirds in Scotland but more recently has noticed a worrying trend. They gained their dustbin nickname as they skim food off the surface of the ocean – but as our oceans become increasingly choked with floating plastic debris, the fulmars are filling up on rubbish rather than food.

Harvest Mouse house
With a name that screams autumn, the harvest mouse is Europe’s smallest rodent and one of our most industrious. Its extreme small size means that it has to keep itself constantly busy to survive. During the autumn the cycle of eating, building nests and staying away from predators is a full-time job.

Tadpole shrimp - a dinosaur in your puddle
In a few small areas of the UK, a prehistoric-looking animal prowls the puddles. The tadpole shrimp is a freshwater crustacean with a remarkable lifecycle. Lying dormant in soil for the summer, the eggs start to hatch as the water builds in an ephemeral pool. It’s then a race against time for these line-like creatures – they need to eat, mate and lay their own eggs before everything dries up once more.

People-led films

Rob MacFarlane on JA Baker
Twenty five years ago renowned nature author Rob Macfarlane read a book that changed his life: JA Baker's The Peregrine. In this beautiful film, Rob explores the extraordinary writing that makes this book stand out, and looks at its legacy on the 50th anniversary of its publication.

The Illustrators
Brothers Richard and Ian Lewington are the most prolific and respected wildlife illustrators of their time. They’ve illustrated some of the most famous and well know wildlife identification guides used by countless naturalists worldwide. We delve into their lives to discover what inspires them and follow the process of how they create their exquisite anatomically accurate creations.

Westonbirt Poetry
Marchant has cerebral palsy but won’t let that get in the way of his twin passions - writing poetry and being among the trees. This year he has brought them together in a remarkable exhibition at Westonbirt Arboretum, exploring some of the iconic individual trees in the UK’s most famous collection through verses hung from their boughs for all to enjoy.

Kate MacRae’s badger sett
Kate has been a friend of the show for many years often ahead of the team in developing and trying new technologies for herself. Over the last year she fulfilled a long-held ambition, tempting badgers into a specially designed filming sett to reveal some incredible and intimate behaviour.

Related BBC Links

• Springwatch 2017