BBC wildlife shows' gloomy take on climate crisis turns off viewers, admits presenter
The BBC’s wildlife programmes have turned off viewers with their gloomy take on climate change, one of its presenters has admitted.
Michaela Strachan, who presents Winterwatch with Chris Packham, said audiences had complained about the content and said they wanted more uplifting stories.
Winterwatch returns to BBC Two next week and Strachan said: “This year has been very tough, with two wars and a cost of living crisis. Our news is filled with heartbreakingly sad images. People now realise we’re not facing climate change but a climate crisis. It feels like everywhere you go, someone’s building, or dredging something.
“Sometimes we’ve gone too far and people have told us that’s not what they come to the programme for: our role is also to uplift and empower.”
She told Radio Times: “Our viewers are caring people who want to make a difference but don’t always know how, so we’ll offer ideas for citizen science or celebrate unsung heroes, whether they’re rewilding estates or putting up a few nest boxes.
“We need that more than ever this year.”
Traditionally, the Winterwatch programme lasts for two weeks. However, the BBC has reduced it to one, while scrapping Autumnwatch altogether.
Strachan, who is based in Cape Town, South Africa, when not working for the BBC, said of the cuts: “I’m 57 and I’ve been doing telly since I was 20 so I understand how these things work, but all of us feel this is more than a job.
“We were so disappointed because although we don’t get the same viewing figures as something like I’m A Celebrity… we’re way more important. People need this programme.”
The BBC announced the cancellation of Autumnwatch and the truncation of Winterwatch last year, citing poor ratings and financial pressures. Only Springwatch remains untouched, and will return in May.
“These are challenging times financially and we need to make difficult decisions and focus our resources on content that has the highest impact,” the BBC said at the time.
This series of Winterwatch will include reports from the Orkneys and RSPB Arne, a nature reserve in Dorset.
Also interviewed by Radio Times, Chris Packham was asked if it was possible to depict the reality of the climate crisis without depressing viewers.
He said: “There was a time when we ignored the bigger picture, but we integrate climate breakdown and biodiversity loss into most of our conversations now. If I thought all was lost, I’d probably get drunk in a gutter, but we have the capacity to restore and recover, reinstate and reintroduce.”
Packham said he would carry on campaigning in 2024 and is “investing in a team to help me get as much done as effectively as possible”.
In 2023, he made a Channel 4 documentary, Is It Time To Break the Law?, in which he concluded that radical protest was “the ethically responsible thing to do”.
Strachan and Packham have worked together since 1993, when they co-hosted The Really Wild Show.
Strachan said she admired Packham’s campaigning work, and the ways in which he has learned to manage his social difficulties with autism.
Packham described their relationship as a “comfortable friendship” and said: “She’s a very social person so if she’s over from South Africa, she’ll invite herself to the house.
“Apart from that, we don’t hang out, but then I don’t hang out with anyone.”
