Two years in the past, masked males arrived at Chris Packham’s New Forest home, smashed a stolen automobile into his gates and exploded it.

It adopted months of demise threats and intimidation from individuals who had been sad about his feedback on the unlawful persecution of birds of prey. (Packham has been within the information once more this week after being assigned bodyguards whereas filming the brand new sequence of Winterwatch, as a consequence of threats made towards his household.)

The blaze additionally burned to a crisp his picket gates, and what Packham did with the charred stays says quite a bit about this challenge’s cowl star.

Seeing magnificence within the burned wooden, he rigorously minimize them up into three table-sized chunks and had them encased in resin. He gave one to a good friend, is auctioning one other off to boost cash for charities who “oppose the views of the individuals who burned the gates down” and is retaining one other as a memento. Why? “As a result of I knew I needed to flip it into one thing optimistic,” he mentioned.

Our interview is filled with such particulars that expose what makes Packham tick, from his ardour for punk to his decided religion in younger folks and their planet-protecting instincts.

Picture: Pål Hansen