Michaela Strachan has opened up about her “heated” off-air clashes with her Springwatch co-star Chris Packham.
The pair began working together in the early ‘90s and are known for presenting the beloved nature programmes Springwatch and Winterwatch on BBC 2.
While the duo are known for their playful dynamic, Strachan, 60, has revealed they have argued in the past over the content they show and recalled an argument over a “traumatic” wildlife scene.
“We have heated debates because Chris is the scientific one and I am the soft underbelly of wildlife telly who gets involved with the emotional storylines,” she told the London audience on her Not Such a Wildlife tour, per The Sun.
“There was one time when a buzzard started to bully its younger sibling and then peck it to death,” she said.
“I watched it on the cameras and it was brutal, as it was kicked out of the nest and onto the ground.”
The presenter went on: “Chris then wanted to put a camera on the corpse to see how it decomposed. I thought this was a step too far and I thought our viewers would be traumatised by this.”
“I won that argument, but we had this heated row and it did make me laugh because there were all these young researchers who were sitting there with their eyes getting wider, thinking, ‘I thought these two were friends and now they’re really fighting each other.’
“But that’s what Chris and I do to make sure we get the best programme. We argue about the content.”
Strachan and Packham - who recently compared himself to Jeremy Clarkson - started working together in 1992, co-presenting the children’s BBC wildlife programme, The Really Wild Show, with the late Terry Nutkins.
The Really Wild Show aired on CBBC throughout the 90s and was a huge hit with its young fans. The pair began co-presenting Springwatch in 2011.
Reflecting on their decades-long friendship, Strachan previously said she “adores” her co-star, 65.
“I adore my relationship with Chris,” she told The Sun in April.
“If you’re still working with somebody after nearly 35 years, you’re doing well. That fantastic on screen chemistry that people have, it’s such a lovely warm thing.
“Chris and I bring warmth and humour to the show. It would be very dry if you didn’t have the quirkiness of it, it’s completely absurd. The Really Wild Show with Chris was a high point, seeing all these amazing animals.”
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Strachan revealed she faced a second cancer scare after Springwatch viewers noticed a lump on her throat while she was live on air - though it was investigated and resolved.
“I did have a second scare, which was extraordinary, because I was doing Springwatch and I had a few people after the show message me and say, did you know you’ve got a lump on your throat?” she said on Kaye Adams’ podcast in February.
“I was like, ‘have I?’ I was watching the show back in bed — because I’m slightly geeky like that, I’ve always watched the live show back — and I thought, ‘oh my god, I do — I’ve got a lump’,” she said.
Strachan described the lump as “like an Adam’s apple at the side of my throat that was moving up and down as I spoke”.
After initial fears that it could be throat cancer, tests confirmed the lump was a benign cyst, which doctors were able to drain without complication, and Strachan has since made a full recovery.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 after undergoing a routine mammogram while living in Cape Town.
The TV host later had a double mastectomy as part of her treatment, following her appearance on ITV’s Splash!.
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