Walk on the wildside

Gordon Buchanan to visit The Hexagon

WILDLIFE filmmaker Gordon Buchanan is heading to Reading this month to share insights into his life and career.

Having produced some of the most popular wildlife programmes on the BBC, he shares hidden animal worlds to an audience.

In the show, at Reading’s Hexagon Theatre on Monday, March 20, Gordon unpacks 30 years of being behind and in front of the camera.

He grew up on the Isle of Mull, and he feels this was the inspiration for his career.

“It is a very wild part of Scotland, and I think that drove my passion for being outside, and close to nature,” he says.

“School didn’t do it for me: academically I wasn’t really present

- all I wanted was to be outside, and the classroom was torture. I was a daydreamer, and I always knew I was never going to work in an office. I’d see the scallop divers, and I’d think: that’s a really good way to spend your working life.”

Growing up in the 70s and 80s, he was watching some of David Attenborough’s landmark natural history documentaries, saying he devoured them.

“Attenborough is tremendous: his career has lasted so long, he’s such an important voice, and he has so much respect, right across the globe.

“I thought my admiration for him could go no higher - but then I met him, and it soared even more,” he said.

But that’s not how his career started. It’s all down to a weekend job in a restaurant.

“The husband of the owner was a cameraman,” he recalls. “He was going to Sierra Leone for 18 months to make a film about the animals in the Gola rainforest, and he asked me if I wanted to come along as his assistant.

“I knew nothing about what it involved, and I had no idea really what I was getting into - but I knew it was the sort of life I wanted, and I never wavered from that belief.

“So having never been abroad - never even been on a plane - there

I was a month after leaving school, setting off for a year and a half on the other side of the world.”

Gordon says it was the best break he ever had, even though those 18 months were tough going for a lad who had never been away for so long before.

“I knew it was the way forward, I knew it was an incredible opportunity - and I knew I’d be able to build on it and move into the life I’d love,” he said.

Fast forward, and Gordon has been filming jaguars in Brazil, something that he has loved.

“Big cats are the pinnacle for me - watching them hunt is utterly fascinating,” he says.

“The technology has changed hugely over the three decades since I started out - it’s always been about showing viewers the parts of nature we’ve never been able to see before, and technology allows us to do that more and more.

“But the other huge change across the years has been the increased realisation about how vulnerable and fragile these areas of the world where I’m filming actually are.

“Thirty years ago we didn’t know - the world was a lot bigger then, and we simply didn’t realise the impact human beings were having on wildlife.

“Now we understand that so much better, and I’m acutely aware of it in every way, from my own carbon footprint to questions around changes that need to be made by governments across the globe, if we’re going to stop the damage.

“Right now we’re losing animals before we even knew their species existed - that’s a tragedy.”

Wildlife filming involves being in remote locations, where anything could happen. How does that feel?

“Sometimes it’s me completely on my own - and when you’re trying to witness something that requires great sensitivity, that’s the best way to do it,” Gordon says.

“But usually I’m working in a team of four - the camera operator, sound operator and director. We tend to be a pretty tight bunch, because you’re relying heavily on one another, especially when you’re in a dangerous situation.”

That includes some hair-raising moments that would scare off even the strongest of explorers.

“I’ve been chased by bears, tigers and elephants - but not all at the same time. And let me tell you: that’s when you discover how fast you really can run.”

Thankfully, audiences at The Hexagon will be more sedate.

Tickets cost £27, or £24.50. NHS staff pay a special rate of £12.

■ For more details, or to book, call the box office on: 0118 960 6060, or log on to: whatsonreading.com