Gordon Buchanan - "I packed in school at 17 and ran off to Sierra Leone"

Virgin Radio

22 Feb 2023, 08:36

The wildlife photographer is taking his life story out on the road.

After a sell-out UK tour last year, Gordon Buchanan's 30 Years In The Wild Tour is back by popular demand. The prominent wildlife presenter and filmmaker starts on March 14th in Dundee, at the Whitehall Theatre, and ends April 15th at Ilkley, King's Hall. Tickets are available here.

Gordon popped into The Graham Norton Radio Show With Waitrose this past weekend to tell us more about what people should expect.

"I wasted my time at school not concentrating," says the creator of Tribes, Predators & Me, The Polar Bear Family & Me and Life in the Snow. "I just wanted to be outside the whole time. When I got to the age of 16, I thought, 'Hang on, I'm gonna have to find something to do with my life, and I didn't know what that would be'. I'd messed around so much at school that I wasn't gonna leave with any qualifications of any worth, but then I met a wildlife cameraman. I thought that just sounded like the most amazing job in the world, and I kind of slightly manipulated him into him giving me a job."

He continues, "I was in Sierra Leone when I was 17. I just packed in school and I was away!"

Blimey!

When Gordon got there he found "mostly primates". He says, "It was an island in the middle of a river, completely uninhabited, apart from sort of hundreds of different monkey species. There were all sorts of weird and wonderful animals that back then had never been filmed before".

"So much has changed in the 30 years I've been doing this," he adds. "Back then there was no footage of snow leopards. Now you can get a shot on your camera phone! Camera traps changed so much. You can put a camera up on a mountain and leave it for months and months and months. There's thermal imaging cameras too, and all sorts of microscopic cameras and nanotechnology. Practically everything is filmable, whether it lives on the highest mountains or the depths of the deepest ocean."

Stories from this evolution of the wildlife media industry are amongst that which fans should expect from the shows. It's also a rare opportunity to discover what has driven Gordon's career and what his most favourite wildlife encounters are. 

"I suppose it's kind of the highs and lows of 30 years in the best job in the world," he says, "and there's always something to look at that isn't just me, whether it's clips or images of the animals I've encountered. And it's a bit of an emotional roller coaster too. Because I took the show out last year, anything that didn't get an emotional response last time round, I've taken it out and replaced it with something else."

"There will be gasps, cheers and tears," he promises.

Listen to The Graham Norton Radio Show every Saturday AND Sunday from 9:30 am on Virgin Radio or catch up on-demand here.