Latest news with #MichaelaStrachan
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Springwatch viewers left 'dreading' show after spotting BBC host Chris Packham's 'annoying' habit
Springwatch viewers confessed that they have been left 'dreading' the show after spotting host Chris Packham's 'annoying' habit on Monday night. The latest series of the BBC series returned to our screens at the end of May from a new location of National Trust 's Longshaw Estate in the Peak District. Last night (Monday 2 June) saw Chris, 64, and co-star Michaela Strachan, 59, open the programme with a huge smile on their faces. Chris said: 'It's week two coming to you live from the National Trust Longshaw Estate up here in the Peak District National Park.' He continued: 'Now, Girls and Boys, there's no other way to spend a Monday night, you've got your Coffee and TV, and we're going to dive into the Chemical World of insect vesicant and a practical demonstration of oesophageal peristalsis.' Those watching at home all took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say the same thing. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. '#springwatch ahh its Blur week. boys and girls, coffee and tv....' 'Blur references heard already.' 'Is Chris on to Blur this week, Beetlebum reference?' 'Ah! So Blur, this week. Nice one!' 'Packham crying to get as many Blursongs as he can. This is a low, tender, beetlebum etc.' According to The Express another said: 'F*** sake, so it's Blur this week, is it?' 'I dread to think how many annoying song references Chris is gonna make this week.' While others pointed out that last week's episode of the show focused on another popular band. 'Oh we've gone from Oasis to Blur. #Springwatch.' 'Blur "Beetlebum" Has Chris Packham moved from Oasis to Blur this week.' Many viewers took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share the same thoughts as Chris returned to our screens this week It comes after Chris complained that UK 'is going to hell in a handcart' after the Springwatch budget was slashed - and even branded Britain 'one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world '. The Watches - which are annual BBC programmes which explore the wildlife in the UK during each of the seasons - have been on our screens since 2005. Springwatch and Winterwatch are still running, but Autumnwatch wrapped up in 2022. And Chris, who has been a presenter on the shows since 2009, has shared his worries about the UK after it was revealed recently that the budget has been cut. Chris told Radio Times: 'Springwatch will always be needed. 'The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world and wildlife is going to hell in a handcart.' Despite that, there will be a new brand new series of Springwatch airing very soon, and Chris' co-star Michaela Strachan has teased what fans can expect. Michaela told the publication: 'We tell the stories nature gives us. We're in a new location – the National Trust's Longshaw Estate in the Peak District – so we'll be tracking wood warblers and curlews.' She added: 'We have great production values, even though our budget has been cut. 'There are positives to streaming, too; you can watch Springwatch on catch-up!' Springwatch's official Instagram account shared a sneak peek on their account with a video of the two ahead of the brand new series. Chris said: 'Springwatch is back! We're going to be coming from a brand new location, the National Trust Longshaw Estate in the Peak Distrct.' Michaela chimed in: I'll be on the lookout for mountain hares, brown long-eared bats and dippers.'
BBC News
4 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
'Remarkable' owl seen on Springwatch for first time
The BBC's Springwatch programme has captured an animal never seen before in the show's 20-year run while filming in show is currently stationed at the National Trust-owned Longshaw Estate in the Peak District National Park until 12 June, broadcast live every night.A family of short-eared owls were captured by the cameras for the first time, with presenter Chris Packham describing them as Michaela Strachan praised the Peak District and said the "habitat variety" made the location a great fit for the programme. Behind the scenes, the huge production has 100 people working on the show but planning the marathon broadcast begins the year earlier, to assess what wildlife is likely to 30 cameras have been set up around the estate and they are monitored 24 hours a day by teams of two who work in cameras have showcased a vast array of animals that call the estate said: "We've got our first lot of birds that are fledging the nests, last week we were watching those youngsters develop so we're now on fledge-watch for the first time, which is always nice. "We saw short-eared owls which have never featured on the programme before."They're remarkable birds and are interesting in the way they fledge unsynchronised, so you'll see one big chick and one small chick."We've also had the long-eared owl which we've never had live before which was very exciting." In a new feature, producers of the popular nature programme decided to place hidden cameras in ordinary gardens for the show's 20th anniversary took place on a street eight miles from the Longshaw Estate, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where residents had installed "swift bricks" to attract the cameras have captured badgers, foxes and hedgehogs as well as the nesting swifts."What we see in that street is people have gone that extra mile looking after the wildlife and it is paying dividends," Packham added. The show first appeared on TV with Bill Oddie and the team in Devon back in said the Peak District was a perfect fit for its 20th anniversary."It's a beautiful place," she said. "But what we look for when we come to a new site is the variety of habitats and the Peak District has a fantastic variety."You have oak woodland, you've got moorland, peaks, rivers and all that supports a wide-range of wildlife and that's what we look for."Despite the incredible animals on show, Packham said the programme has a more serious message."We don't mince our words, wildlife is in trouble so part of our remit as a programme is to try and engage people so they develop a deep-rooted affinity for it and they want to look out for it."
BBC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
The Sheffield street that appears on BBC Springwatch
A suburban street with an abundance of wildlife is the star of the new series of BBC the first time, producers of the popular nature programme decided to place hidden cameras in ordinary gardens for the show's 20th anniversary took place on a street in the Sheffield neighbourhood of Hillsborough, where residents have installed "swift bricks" to attract the cameras have captured badgers, foxes and hedgehogs as well as the nesting swifts. The location was selected because of its proximity to the National Trust-owned Longshaw Estate in the Peak District National Park, where Springwatch will be broadcast from for the first is also one of the UK's greenest cities, with a quarter of its land consisting of series began on 26 May and is presented by Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan. Researcher and ornithologist Jack Baddams was sent to Hillsborough to meet the human, avian and mammalian residents of the said he was delighted to see swifts nesting in the eaves of the houses and in the bricks installed by homeowners."Just being on this street and hearing their screams is absolutely fantastic - there's so much work going in to protecting swifts in Sheffield."The garden cameras were first set up in April and have recorded 12,000 clips so Baddams added he was surprised to see badger activity in the said: "Badgers are becoming increasingly urban, there's some fantastic populations of urban badgers in the UK, but to see it climbing over the wall, squeezing under fences it seems out of place. But it's very cool." One of the neighbours whose garden was "bugged" is Deborah Beck - who has a "no mow" policy for her lawn and has provided a pond, woodpile and plenty of flowers to attract wildlife.A fox and a hedgehog were filmed as well as a "big badger" jumping on and off her said: "We knew about the hedgehogs. And we have seen foxes here occasionally in the daytime but the badgers were amazing. "It's so lovely – it feels like the less you do in the garden, the more the wildlife come."I'm really pleased about that," she said. The series runs until Thursday 12 June on BBC Two and is also available on iPlayer. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Michaela Strachan opens up about 'extremely brutal' double mastectomy surgery after breast cancer diagnosis
Michaela Strachan has opened up about her double mastectomy during an appearance on Vanessa on Friday, describing the procedure as 'extremely brutal'. The Springwatch presenter, 59, was 'shocked' to hear she had been diagnosed with breast cancer over a decade ago at the beginning of 2014. Luckily she went onto make a full recovery after undergoing a double mastectomy and later reconstructive surgery. Now Michaela has discussed the emotional toll the 'archaic' procedure took on her, revealing she hopes in 50 years a better method of treatment will have been found. Speaking to host Vanessa Feltz, 63, on her Channel 5 show Vanessa, the much-loved wildlife expert said: 'My boobs were never a big part of my personality, but when they said they were going to take them away, they suddenly became more important than I thought they were. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'It's hard, you go through these things and you think you're going to be fine and it's not until afterwards that you realise emotionally it's a big thing. 'I really hope that in 50 years time we look back at removing a woman's boobs as part of the treatment as archaic because there must be a better way.' Michaela was asked by Vanessa whether the procedure is 'too brutal', to which she replied: 'It's brutal! 'To take a woman's breasts away is brutal. Of course, I'd rather not have boobs and be here than have them and be worried that cancer is going to come back. 'But it just seems extremely brutal.' Michaela too spoke to the host about recovering from her double mastectomy, a procedure which almost 15,000 women in the UK undergo every year. 'It's a six week recovery from the mastectomy and six weeks when you have the reconstruction,' she said. 'There's lots of physio exercises that you do but, you know what, I'm in the position now where it's eleven years later and I forget that I've had a mastectomy. 'I really want to encourage people to talk about it. It seems like such a massive thing at the time and I remember asking someone at the time, "When will I stop thinking about it every day?" 'Now, day-to-day, I forget that I ever had breast cancer. I was really lucky.' Others around Michaela were not so lucky however, with the presenter losing a sister-in-law to cancer, a friends' son aged 35, and her partner Nick Chevallier's best friend to a heart attack all during 2014. She told The Express: 'These were people our age. I know I'm getting on but I'm 57 – I shouldn't know this number of people who have died.' While living in a small coastal town in South Africa with her partner and their son Oliver, Michaela has since become an ambassador for the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, stressing the importance of having regular mammograms. She has continued to present Springwatch and earlier this year took part in Dancing On Ice, where she skated alongside pro partner Mark Hanretty. Michaela made history on the show as, at the age of 58, she became the oldest ever contestant on Dancing On Ice to make it to the final. She was however pipped at the final hurdle by Sam Aston. Michaela nevertheless described the experience as a 'great' way to push herself outside her comfort zone. The presenter told MailOnline earlier this year: 'I think it's great when you're a bit older and you are able to push yourself out of your comfort zone. 'I spent my entire career pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and it's great to be able to continue to do that.'
Telegraph
5 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
BBC ‘damages countryside' to film Chris Packham's Springwatch
The BBC has been accused of damaging the countryside in order to film Chris Packham's Springwatch. The show is broadcasting live from a National Trust estate in the Peak District which is home to one of Britain's most threatened birds, protected insects and rare plants. But residents have accused the BBC of 'hypocrisy', saying that the 'reality' of the wildlife show is actually to damage the wildlife, including roads built for lorries and a steel plate over a meadow where wildflowers were about to burst into bloom. Mr Packham is joined by fellow presenter Michaela Strachan at the National Trust's Longshaw estate for three weeks of live filming for the show's 20th anniversary. The first episode, which aired on Monday, opened with the pair praising the habitats and the wildlife at the location, including hares, herds of deer, short-eared owls and ring ouzels. But resident Christine Laver said that the 'reality' of the show behind the scenes was very different. Tonnes of limestone were tipped into a gritstone landscape, which could cause damage as the materials support different types of habitat. Other damage saw ditches blocked and tracks 'widened by vehicles they were never designed for', the local council worker said. She added that there was 'a meadow covered in steel plating, just when the wildflowers are coming into bloom' and 'dozens of staff and production vehicles'. 'How many tons of CO2 will this lot produce in three weeks, Chris Packham?' she asked. Callum Cocker, who visits the site most weekends to watch the red stags, said that 'a week before the circus arrived' he had spotted two curlews in the field. He did not get close enough to see if they were nesting but said that if the threatened birds had 'chosen it for a nest site, that all went out the window when Springwatch arrived and laid checker plate on the wildflower meadows and parked HGVs in the field'. Mo Metcalf-Fisher, external affairs director at the Countryside Alliance, said: 'It's incumbent on all of us to treat our precious green spaces and natural environment with respect and care. This applies especially to celebrities and broadcasters out and about in the countryside, who have a special responsibility to lead by example at all times.' A BBC spokesman said: 'At Longshaw the Springwatch team is working in cooperation with the National Trust. The field location was confirmed as appropriate for temporary use by local land managers and no wildlife has been displaced. 'All of the surfaces installed and modifications are temporary, and the National Trust will undertake any works that may be needed to reinstate the site once Springwatch has departed. This restoration includes reseeding fields, restoring ditches, and reverting any landscape changes. 'Minimising our environmental impact is a top priority and Springwatch is certified by BAFTA Albert, which encourages sustainable TV and film production. Whilst on location, our main power source is a green hydrogen fuel cell, dramatically reducing our CO₂ emission.' On a page on their website describing how 'delighted' they are to host Springwatch, the National Trust tells readers that they should be 'a wise wildlife watcher'. Top tips are 'keep your distance', 'activate your stealth mode' by moving quietly and not staying in one place for too long and 'leave no trace' by not damaging the plants and vegetation. The National Trust echoed the BBC's statement and said that they are working together 'to uphold the highest possible environmental standards'.
