Steve Backshall

Clare Balding walks with naturalist, author & TV presenter, Steve Backshall. Together they stroll along his favourite stretch of the Thames from Bourne End to Boulter's Lock in Buckinghamshire.

Steve is best known for presenting CBBC's 'Deadly 60', and has recently started writing children's fiction - his first book is 'Tiger Wars', about a group of renegade children who become involved with tiger poaching in India.

He spends a lot of time filming abroad so Clare was lucky to catch up with him on his home patch. As they wander along the Thames, Steve explains that his love of the outdoors began when - as a child - his parents sent him and his sister out to play and told them not to come back until it was dark. This kind of 'feral' (as he put it) freedom developed in him an enduring passion for the natural world.

Producer: Karen Gregor.