Being a TV star nearly killed me

THE Britain’s Best Walks presenter – dubbed the ‘walking man’s crumpet’ – talks of cavorting naked on live TV, confronting abusive dog-walkers, and dealing with gun fanatics on Twitter… Don’t believe everything you

read on Wikipedia. It says I was once cavorted naked on a cable TV show, which is absolute b******s. But I’m going to let it lie as it makes me sound quite interesting. I hate my short stumpy tooth. I always smile on the other side of my face as I don’t want people to see it. Oh no – now everybody’s going to be analysing photos of me. I try not to take the spats I get into on Twitter too seriously. I post about Trump because I think the guy is a moron and I’m very anti-guns too. I’ve had some unbelievable responses, such as: ‘How would you feel if your Mom was raped and couldn’t defend herself?’ I can’t help reacting to some of them, but eventually you walk away as it’s a no-win situation. My disagreement with a dog walker turned into Poo-gate. This man let his dog mess on our street and I said: ‘You are going to clear that up.’ He said: ‘Yeah, I’m just going to get a spade’ – but then just walked off. I chased him and he became very abusive – until I started filming him. I nearly died rock climbing. I was ascending a 200ft sea stack called the Old Man Of Stoer when the cameraman filming above me put his foot on a ledge and a massive sandstone slab came crashing down. It missed me by inches.

Handstands are my new addiction. They’re good for your brain. At 47, I’m too old for a career

change. I don’t have any ambitions to make a pop record – and I’m not interested in appearing on Strictly. Julia is appearing at Destinations, the holiday and travel show, in London from February 1 to 4 (destinations show.com). She will also be hosting Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 100 on ITV later this month.