Born in Wimbledon, London,[6][7] to IBM employee[8][9] Nick Humble and Diana (née Carter), she is the granddaughter of Bill Humble, a notable pre-Second World War aviator. She is also the great-great-great granddaughter of Joseph Humble, colliery manager of Hartley Colliery at the time of the Hartley Colliery disaster. She has a brother. The family moved, when she was nine months old, to Bray in Berkshire, next door to a farm,[9] and she was privately educated at the Abbey School in Reading.[10] She later said of her schooling:
I was a very bad student. I had a fantastic Latin teacher which did mean I did LatinA-Level but other than that my school career wasn't something to be proud of.[11]
After leaving school, she travelled through Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, doing various jobs including waitressing, driving safari trucks and working on a crocodilefarm. She has returned to Africa many times since. In 1994, she travelled around Madagascar, the subject of her first article for The Daily Telegraph travel section. Since then she has written articles about diving and cycling in Cuba, an 'exploding' lake in Cameroon and hippopotamus conservation work in Ghana.
Career
In 1990, Humble appeared for the first time as an actress in a TV production, Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, and was credited as "Lauren Heston … The redhead". She was the assistant to a casting director who was looking for an actress to play a brief nude scene, and she got the job herself.[12][13]
Humble started her television career as a researcher, later transferring to presenting programmes such as Top Gear, Tomorrow's World and the 2001 series The Holiday Programme – You call the shots where the team travelled the world[14] doing whatever viewers recommended, using the then-novel media of text messaging and emailing the team as they travelled.
From 2000 to 2005, she presented a BBC series called Rough Science, in which a number of scientists were set various challenges to be solved using basic tools and supplies.
She occasionally performs on the lecture circuit with a show based on her experiences with wildlife, titled Harassed by Hippos and Battered by Cod: A Humble Way to Make a Living.[17]
In 2007 she founded the web site Stuff Your Rucksack that helps organisations around the world find the items they need by matching them with travellers.[18]
On 16 February 2009 she made her first appearance in Countdown's Dictionary Corner.[19] On 29 July she was the subject for the programme Who Do You Think You Are?[20] where she discovered that she had family connections to the Hartley Colliery disaster. Her paternal grandfather Bill Humble was a test pilot who tested the Hawker Tempest and her maternal grandfather Stan Carter was an officer in the RAF and after being shot down was held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III at the time of "The Great Escape". In August Humble presented a series of programmes for the BBC in which she made a two thousand mile journey across the Middle East, following the ancient frankincense trade route of Arabia which first connected the Arab world with the West. The series culminates in her presenting frankincense, that she has carried throughout the journey, to be used in a Christmas service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.[21] On 3 October Humble was appointed president of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.[3] In 2013, Humble was succeeded as President of the RSPB by Miranda Krestovnikoff.[4]
In 2010 Humble described being on holiday in the north-eastern region of Afghanistan where there were no signs of conflict, but where the Wakhi people were expected to be hostile. Instead, Humble said they were "amongst the most astonishing, hospitable, warm, genuine people" she has ever met. They were also hard and tough, and Humble believes that "if anyone thinks they are going to win a war against an Afghan they are insane!" She is writing about her experiences in Afghanistan for a forthcoming publication.[22] From 3 to 7 May 2010 she appeared as the dictionary corner guest on Countdown.[citation needed]
In February 2011 Humble presented a three-part series of programmes, The Spice Trail, on the trail of six of the world's most valuable spices, covering their history, trade, mythology and usage.[23]
Humble is married to the television producer Ludo Graham. Their families were friends, and they first met when she was aged 16 and he 23.[30] They married in Newbury, Berkshire, in 1992, when she was 23. In 2007, they moved from Chiswick, West London, to the village of Trellech, in Monmouthshire, where they had wanted to live for "a very long time".[31] Humble now owns her own farm after working on Lambing Live.
Humble reacted to public criticism on ITV's Lorraine about her lack of intent to have children, stating that "I don’t want them, I’ve never wanted them".[32]
Humble is a naturist who "likes to get closer to nature by being naked".[33] About being naked, she says "There's something joyous about it, and I urge everyone to try it".[33][34]
William Edgar Oddie is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment through public awareness campaigns, petitions and through the operation of nature reserves throughout the United Kingdom.
Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie is a live BBC TV show, broadcast nightly, Monday – Thursday, from 31 May 2004 to 17 June 2004.
Wild In Your Garden was a live BBC Television show, broadcast in 2003.
Stephen Moss is a British natural historian, birder, author, and television producer.
Miranda Krestovnikoff is a British radio and television presenter specialising in natural history and archaeological programmes. She is an accomplished musician, and also a qualified scuba diver which has led to co-presenting opportunities in programmes with an underwater context.
Springwatch, Autumnwatch until 2022 and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC's largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan is an English television presenter. She is best known for her work with wildlife series such as The Really Wild Show and Springwatch. She lives in South Africa.
Simon Henry King OBE HonFRPS is a British naturalist, author, conservationist, television presenter and cameraman, specialising in nature documentaries. King received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2011.
Christopher Gary Packham CBE is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009.
Stephen James Backshall is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.
Neil Nightingale is a British freelance wildlife filmmaker, executive producer and creative consultant with over 35 years experience at the BBC. From 2009 to 2018 he was the creative director of BBC Earth, BBC Worldwide's global brand for all BBC nature and science content.
Iolo Tudur Williams is a Welsh ornithologist, nature observer, television presenter and author, best known for his BBC and S4C nature programmes, working in both English and his first language of Welsh. After a 14-year career with the RSPB, in 1999 Williams became a full-time TV presenter. He has written a number of books about the natural world.
Mike Dilger is an English ecologist, television presenter and the wildlife reporter on the BBC television programme The One Show. He attended the University of Nottingham and UCNW Bangor in north Wales.
Saving Planet Earth is a season of nature documentaries with a conservation theme, screened on BBC Television in 2007 to mark the 50th anniversary of its specialist factual department, the BBC Natural History Unit.
Green Balloon Club is a British children's factual television program that started on CBeebies on 20 June 2008.
Charlie Hamilton James is an English photographer, television cameraman and presenter, specialising in wildlife subjects. He started his career at 16, working on David Attenborough's The Trials of Life. His work has since been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, the BBC's Springwatch/Autumnwatch shows and The Natural World.
Lindsey Katherine Chapman is an English television and radio presenter.
Planet Earth is a television and film documentary franchise produced and broadcast by the BBC. The franchise began in 2001 with the success of The Blue Planet. As of 2017, The Blue Planet has spawned 5 series and one feature film.
Megan McCubbin is an English zoologist, conservationist, photographer and television presenter.
↑ "The Spice Trail". Bbc.co.uk. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2014. The episodes were: Part 1 – Pepper & Cinnamon; Part 2 – Nutmeg & Cloves; Part 3 – Saffron & Vanilla.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
