Steve Backshall: I had 'horrible guilt' over leaving my pregnant wife to travel the world

Steve Backshall is in the grip of an existential crisis. As the spectre of environmental catastrophe looms, wildlife documentarians are increasingly expected do more than document wildlife, and also address problems such as climate change, pollution and habitat loss.

Yet to dip too far into conservation-heavy programming risks alienating the mass audiences most in need of environmental awareness.

Thus, the weight of responsibility bears heavy on Steve’s broad shoulders.

“Throughout my career, I have told myself it is good enough to show the world at its most beautiful, because people will be inspired to take care of it. But now I have the exact same crisis I’ve seen Sir David Attenborough go through over the past decade. It’s not enough anymore. I need to be doing more to focus on the problems we have in the world.”

And therein lies the rub, because conservation television risks being broadcast in an echo chamber where, as Backshall says, “most people you are speaking to already agree with you.

“You end up making programmes about conservation that only conservationists watch. So, I’m struggling to find how to speak to the maximum number of people, while still getting the message across.”

Backshall is one of the big five UK wildlife presenters, up there with Attenborough, Packham, Strachan and, latterly, Buchanan. He established himself presenting CBBC’s hugely popular Deadly 60 strand, travelling the world in search of dangerous creatures.

Blessed with a rugged physique and a willingness to don a wetsuit, he became a favourite with children and their mothers, but the 46-year-old, who is married to Olympic rower Helen Glover, is much more than wildlife eye candy.

In person he’s engaging, sharply intelligent, thoughtful and passionate about the natural world. A seasoned traveller, he has witnessed the environmental issues of our times first-hand, but remains refreshingly optimistic.

Recently, in the Borneo rainforest, a place he’s been visiting for 25 years, he saw increased encroachment from mining and palm oil production.

In the middle there remains a bastion of pristine forest the size of Belgium. Rather than mourn what’s lost, Steve celebrates what remains.

“It shows what we have to lose. It is horribly upsetting but I try not to get too negative, because that’s the kiss of death. In life we achieve more when we are optimistic and positive and can see solutions.”

He hopes his new series, Expedition with Steve Backshall, will provide inspiration. It follows Backshall and a small, changing team of world-class adventurers to hitherto unexplored locations that remain untouched by human hand.

Along the way they encounter wildlife, incredible scenery and considerable jeopardy.

The 10-part series, which is broadcast on Dave from July 21, is vast in scope and a feast for the eyes. It took a year to film, and each episode focuses on a different location.

Backshall climbs, kayaks, treks and scuba dives his way through vast cave systems, down waterfalls and across icy tundra.

At each location there is an environmental message and the series will be shown in China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, where he hopes that “if people take just a fraction of the message, we can potentially reach hundreds of millions of people”.

“Potentially, I can make a bigger impact doing programmes like this than I can doing 100 conservation programmes or going into politics or doing any of those things I feel like I should be doing,” he says.

In the dramatic, adventure-driven format, wildlife takes a back seat. Similar shows, particularly in the US, are often scripted, contrived and filmed under controlled conditions, according to Backshall, but in Expedition the danger is so real, he almost lost his life.

While descending rapids on an uncharted river in Bhutan, his kayak flipped over in a whirlpool under a waterfall and he was trapped under icy glacial water for five minutes.

“I had enough time to understand that I had no strength left and was drowning. I realised it was how it ends, how I was going to die. I had time to think through the impact, that I would never get to see my baby son grow up.”

Luckily, the team included world-class white-water kayaker Sal Montgomery, who managed to pull Backshall out.

“There will always be a little part of me that owes everything to Sal,” he says.

Last July, while filming the series, Glover gave birth to their son, Logan. Initially they were expecting twins, but they lost one of the babies.

Fatherhood and the near-death kayaking experience has made Backshall think carefully about the next project he chooses.

“I see things differently now. It was only luck that we got through the series without serious injury or worse, and that’s not good enough.”

Expedition was a departure from the wildlife programming he’s known for, and that is where he intends to focus in the future.

A respected botanist, he campaigns on wildlife issues. Domestically, he says he is seeing a worrying disconnect from nature among Britons, demonstrated in the way many people now view native species – but is optimistic that at heart, we remain a nation of nature lovers.

“There is a tendency to see the animals I treasure – such as foxes – as vermin. There is panic every time they encroach on our space. But at the same time the British wildlife lobby is as strong as you’ll find anywhere in the world, which is surprising considering we have tremendously denuded fauna in this country.”

For much of his adult life, Backshall lived a nomadic existence, using the UK as a base between foreign assignments. He admits he often he is more comfortable barefoot in the rainforest that he is in London at night after the pubs close.

But lately he’s experienced homesickness for the first time, and misses his family desperately when he’s away.

“Helen and I had lots of deep chats about whether I should do Expedition. Personally, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. But it became evident that unless we went for it the logistics, structure and team we had put together would all be for nothing.

“So, we made the call together as a couple. There were plenty of times I wanted to cancel. I had horrible guilt. Thankfully, Helen had huge support from her family.

“I missed out. At first Helen was very heavily pregnant with a pregnancy that was going far from smoothly, and then I had a new baby. I went weeks without speaking to home and always missed some big benchmark. I’d never had anything approaching homesickness before. I’ve hankered over decent food or a comfy bed but never had that deep, gut-wrenching longing.”

Satellite calls home from the jungle were inevitably tense.

“I rarely got a chance, and when I did the tension and pressure of not having spoken for 10 days, and only having three minutes during which Helen might only understand 20 words, was crap.”

Back home now, he recently had surgery on the shoulder he damaged during his kayak accident, but counts himself lucky as he rarely suffers on his travels.

“There are minor annoyances, such as burrowing mites that get under the skin and itch like fury for a couple of weeks, and leeches, ticks and fungus. But no real illness. The worst I’ve had was diarrhoea while living 30 metres up in the forest canopy filming Harpy Eagles.”

And while he’s still far fitter than most 46-year-old fathers, he admits that increasingly he finds it hard to keep the weight off and needs to diet hard before he heads off on an adventure, not least because of the inevitable bare-chested shots producers seem to like coaxing him into.

“I put pressure on myself,” he laughs. “I know there will be shots with my top off. There probably doesn’t need to be anymore.”

Expedition with Steve Backshall will be broadcast on Dave from July 21. Expedition by Steve Backshall is published by BBC Books on Thursday July 18, £20. Buy now for £16.99 at books.telegraph.co.uk or call 0844 871 1514