Reflecting on a year of change, TV presenter and author Kate Humble talks about the power of challenging self-belief, making small, quiet changes, and always being open to new opportunities.
WORDS: GEMMA CALVERT. IMAGES: SARAH HUDSON VERNON FOR PORTRAIT SHOTS; ANDREW MONTGOMERY FOR LIFESTYLE IMAGES.
Over five decades, Kate Humble has journeyed to all seven continents, visited more than 100 countries and undertaken feats, including crossing the Sahara Desert with salt traders over a five-week expedition in 1999 – not for the benefit of television but purely for personal reward.
‘It was just a journey I wanted to do and one of the hardest things physically and mentally I’ve ever done, but it was an absolutely extraordinary journey,’ says the TV presenter who, 25 years on, is preparing for another mind-boggling challenge: attempting to become one of the first people to fly across the Serengeti National Park by hot air balloon.
‘I’m a little bit nervous!’ laughs Kate, 54, who, three days after our interview, will travel to Tanzania where she will fly for four days with an experienced balloon pilot and her husband of 31 years, TV producer Ludo Graham, 62.
‘We don’t know where we’ll be landing. You can’t fix it because it’s all to do with the winds. He’s a supremely experienced pilot, but he’ll have to land in places where no one has ever landed a balloon.’
With her boundless passion and enthusiasm for the world and all that’s in it, listening to Kate describe her latest adventure is captivating and it’s her awe for the great outdoors that has fuelled a three decade-long career in television.
One of the UK’s most celebrated wildlife presenters, Kate has hosted some of Britain’s best-loved shows, including BBC Two’s
Springwatch and Autumnwatch and BBC One’s Animal Park, ever since it launched in 1999.
Fresh-faced and full of sincerity, with Kate what you see is what you get, and today she speaks with signature honesty about an unsettling development in her career: the challenges she is facing as a freelance female TV presenter.
‘TV is a very strange place at the moment. Fifty per cent of freelancers are saying they’re out of work, programmes are just not being commissioned,’ she explains, confirming there are, alas, no new TV projects on her horizon.
‘It’s been a long-running joke for probably the entire 30 years I’ve been working in television, but in January Ludo w
