A walk on the wild side
IDOUBT it’s the most exciting piece of news you’ll hear all day but we have two programmes tonight with the word “wild” in their title. In one of them, it’s referring to a remote part of British Columbia. Stunningly beautiful but chock-full of hidden dangers. Bear country. In the other, it refers to the M25. The first show is BEN FOGLE: NEW LIVES INTHEWILD
(Channel 5, 9pm), concluding its current run by catching up with a former war reporter and his partner who’ve lived in the middle of nowhere for 15-odd years.
Julius Strauss and his wife Kristin quit their jobs in 2005, invested in a campervan and set off on a journey across the wilds of Canada, eventually making their home in somewhere called Meadow Creek (call me unadventurous but somehow the word “Creek” in a place’s name is enough in itself to put me off, with the possible exception of Jacob’s)
For many years this pair campaigned to protect the local bear population, on which hunting had taken a terrible toll.
Indeed, this was still their main focus when Ben first went to stay with them three years ago.
But as he drops in again for a friendly catch-up he discovers there have been dramatic developments in Julius and Kristin’s story – a pretty good one if you’re a bear, another one that’s maybe not so good if you’re Julius and Kristin.
So, anyway, yes, the M25.That’s what’s being referred to in THE HIDDENWILDS OF THE MOTORWAY, a one-off special tonight on BBC Four
Naturalist Helen Macdonald sets out on a 117-mile journey around the London orbital – yes, lucky Helen – looking for natural beauty in its immediate vicinity.
“At first sight, a motorway is a soulless corridor, devoid of all natural life,” she concedes.
“But is there more to it than that?”
Since she’s got 90 minutes’ airtime to fill, it’s a relief to discover there is. (The alternative? “Sorry, folks, not much to see here after all. Fancy a mosey around Clacket Lane services?”)
Helen begins her journey in woodland in Kent, a stone’s throw from junction one. Here she reveals how the local bird population has adapted its behaviour to deal with the man-made intrusion.
To make sure that they can hear one another over the din of the traffic, the birds near the M25 have started singing in a higher pitch.
Helen is also fascinated by some of the remarkable types of fungus growing near the road.
In fact, “fascinated” is understating it.
These fungi, she tells us “conjure up both sex and death in our minds.”
My Heinz Cream of Mushroom will never taste quite the same again.