Interview with Martin Hughes-Games

What’s the best thing about working on Autumnwatch?
Being able to immerse myself in British wildlife for a solid week. The luxury! Also doing live television with my fellow presenters is a wonderful peak in my year.

What is your favourite thing about Autumn?
Blackberry and apple crumble - and the smell of woodsmoke.

What are you looking forward to about the new series?
Autumnwatch changes and evolves all the time and it’s exciting being part of that process - I’m on site this time so hopefully I will be able to help the audience explore the wildlife of Sherbourne.

What is your favourite memory of working on Autumnwatch?
The very first red deer rut on Rum with Simon King; it was hugely challenging to come live from a small island off the west coast of Scotland. It was a perfect set up for us because the researchers knew the deer so well we could imbue them with genuine character. Also the Rut itself turned into a fantastic spectacular event, with vast stags appearing all around us ready to risk life and limb to have access to the hinds. Perhaps the hardest I have ever worked in my life, but by Jove! it was worth it.

What’s the best thing about hosting a live TV show? Do you get nervous or excited? How do you prepare / deal with anything that doesn’t go to plan?
Yes, my heart beats very fast as we count down to going live - it's enormously exciting and obviously scary at the same time. If things don’t go to plan we just have to keep smiling - and I know I can rely on my fellow presenters to jump in if I falter. If things go very seriously wrong, like falling off air, (which has happened) it’s quite relaxing! There’s absolutely nothing I can do so we just leave it to the astonishingly clever technical team to sort it out.

What are your top tips for people at home to be more wildlife friendly in autumn?
It’s a great time to put up some bird boxes. If you’re feeling energetic dig a pond in your garden, as it will soon be teeming with wildlife. Think about what flowers might you plant next year that are wildlife friendly.

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