Johnny Kingdom
Exmoor lumberjack, gravedigger and poacher who became an acclaimed wildlife presenter
JOHNNY KINGDOM, who has died aged 79 in an accident involving a digger, wore many hats during his lifetime, including spells as a farm labourer, poacher, quarryman, lumberjack and even a gravedigger at his parish church in the village of Bishop’s Nympton on Exmoor. But in 2006 he became an unlikely television celebrity when his wildlife documentary series, Johnny Kingdom: A Year On Exmoor, was broadcast on BBC Two.
In contrast to the usual clean-cut run of wildlife presenters, Kingdom embodied a rough-hewn elementality. With his ruddy complexion, thick moustache, tattooed forearms and rasping Devonshire accent, he prowled the moor wearing a hat stuffed with buzzard and pheasant feathers, and a camouflage outfit specially designed to let him get close to deer in the rutting season.
As someone who had lived on Exmoor for the whole of his life he proved the perfect guide to one of England’s last remaining wildernesses, and A Year On Exmoor drew an audience of more than three million.
One of eight children, Johnny Kingdom was born on February 23 1939 in north Devon where, apart from two years of National Service in the Army Regimental Police in Hong Kong, he remained all his life.
His father worked as a quarryman, gravedigger and poacher, and in his autobiography, published to coincide with the BBC series, Johnny recounted childhood days picking whortleberries, tickling trout from local rivers and keeping a pig in the garden shed. He also showed early promise as a poacher, trapping moles, badgers, foxes and weasels to sell their skins and helping his father catch food for the family to eat.
Johnny also followed in his father’s footsteps as a gravedigger and, for 11 years, as a quarryman. Later he worked as a lumberjack until an accident at work nearly cost him his life.
On the day in question Kingdom was working alone. “I cut down three big timber sticks and we had a tractor with a winch,” he recalled. “I was reversing backwards, with the anchor off the ground, holding up the hydraulic arm, when the chain broke. The hydraulic arm flew through the back of the cabin and flew through the window, knocking me unconscious.”
He sustained multiple injuries from which it took him almost six months to recover. But the psychological damage was longer-lasting and he became severely depressed – until a friend lent him his camera and he took it out on to the moor.
“Something in me came back to life,” he recalled. “I’d started to look up again at what was around, what was happening in nature… Now I wanted to take home my prey not in the back of the van, bloodied and ready for the butcher, but on videotape, so that it might be seen over and over, and give pleasure to myself and others. Suddenly I felt excited to be alive.”
As he roamed the moors on the trail of red deer, foxes, otters, stoats, badgers and birds, the skills he had learnt as a poacher – keeping downwind, using camouflage, exploiting the contours of the land – came into their own. Together with his innate knowledge of the behavioural patterns of local wildlife (and endless reserves of patience), they enabled him to get thrillingly close to his quarry.
He turned his films into DVDS which he started showing in the local village hall, then began selling at country shows and markets. It was while he was manning a stall at Honiton that the countryman and Daily Telegraph correspondent Willie Poole turned up and bought one of his DVDS: “Next thing I knew my story was in the paper and he called my film a masterpiece. That’s how it all started.”
Kingdom first appeared on television in 1993 in a documentary charting his life on Exmoor called The Secret of Happiness, part of Yorkshire Television’s First Tuesday series. His BBC Two programme, Johnny Kingdom: A Year on Exmoor, won him a repeat series, guest slots on series such as Springwatch and appearances in one-off programmes featuring visits to Lapland and the Scottish Highlands. In Johnny’s New Kingdom (BBC Two, 2008) he was seen turning 55 acres of land he had bought on Exmoor into a haven for wildlife. Other series included Johnny Kingdom’s Year with the Birds (BBC4, 2010) and Johnny Kingdom’s Wild Exmoor (ITV, 2015).
As well as his autobiography, Kingdom was the author of several more books including West Country Tales, a collection of local myths and legends, interwoven with his own anecdotes.
On his last day as parish gravedigger in 2006, Kingdom dug his own grave in the cemetery in Bishop’s Nympton. “It did feel strange to be alive and well, digging away in the pit where I knew I’d end up when my turn came,” he told the Western Morning News. “We filled it back with soft earth, so I’ve left an easy job for whichever mechanical digger has to do it when the time comes.”
On September 6 emergency services were called to Johnny Kingdom’s farm at Knowstone, Devon, following reports that a digger had rolled over. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
He is survived by his wife Julie and two sons.
Johnny Kingdom, born February 23 1939, died September 6 2018