An ace presenting face of the wildlife TV genre, Gordon Buchanan is embarking on a nonstop month-long UK tour which takes him to Newport among 29 other locations. It’s called 30 Years In The Wild, but despite this farflung existence he managed to find a Wi-Fi signal and chat to Carl Marsh.

How does one choose what to talk about for a couple of hours, with three decades’ worth of stories to select from?

Gordon Buchanan: When I sat down to write this talk, it wasn’t a case of “What have I got to show? What have I got to say?” – it was just a case of how to condense down 30 years of globetrotting and adventures into one talk. But I think I’ve done a pretty good job of it – I set out to answer all the questions that people generally ask me, like how I got into this in the first place, so sticking with, I suppose, my story of when I was starting off.

I was pretty directionless as a teenager. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do. Qualifications were non-existent. But I just happened to be in the right place and bumped into a wildlife cameraman at the right time. And straight away, I just thought that was the job I would love to do. And yes, after a series of pestering, badgering, and manipulating, he gave me a job, which was over 30 years ago.

Still, that’s not the norm – a wildlife cameraman who subsequently becomes a wildlife presenter. So how easy was it to go from behind that camera to being the one in front of it?

Gordon Buchanan: It’s funny – it wasn’t something I set out to do. I’d always just had this ambition to be a wildlife cameraman and make documentaries. Certainly, I was never proposed to become a wildlife presenter, because I was only interested in animals at the time. Other than someone like David Attenborough, who never really got in the way, I didn’t like presenter-led wildlife programmes.

When the BBC offered me my first presenting opportunity, I was absolute in saying that I didn’t want to do it. And then, it was actually just out of necessity at the time. It was a project in a place that I really wanted to go to – and the condition was that if I took on the job, I would have to spend some time in front of the camera. I thought, that’s fine – I’ll just do that. You’ve asked me to do this, I’ll do it.

I think it may have played into my hands in the long run, because I wasn’t going out of my way, trying to do the job of a wildlife presenter. In many ways, I wasn’t trying particularly hard. I remember an executive producer saying, “I love that you’ve got a very relaxed style.” Probably because I couldn’t be arsed doing it! I’ve managed to maintain that relaxed style, not take it more seriously, but enjoy that side of communicating. 

What point in your career was this switch – you had a good few years as a cameraman already, right?

Gordon Buchanan: This was back in the early 2000s. The BBC was looking to increase diversity, which was to get Scottish voices on TV and other regional accents. There were only a couple of Scottish people in the world of wildlife – I was young and Scottish and ticked a box. It wasn’t something I went hunting for, but I’m very glad it came my way.

Gordon Buchanan: 30 Years In The Wild, The Riverfront, Newport, Sat 18 Mar.

Tickets: £27.50/£24.50. Info: here

words CARL MARSH