Jamie Crawford

Here’s a potted history of the adventure so far:

Over the years I’ve done all sorts of jobs. I was a translator and field guide for treks through Andalucia, ran the beach for a hotel on St Barths, taught in a school in Argentina and was a champagne cellar guide in France for Moet. But my first ‘proper’ job came after studying French and Spanish at university. I trained as a journalist with Reuters news agency and worked in London and then Rome, covering everything from the Pope to politics, economics and equities.

I didn’t speak Italian when I got to Rome so had to learn fast. On my first day in the office I went for a coffee with my boss. He ordered an espresso, I ordered a ‘latte’ as I would in London. The barman gave me a quizzical look and then got on with preparing the order. Moments later he returned with an espresso for my boss and a steaming glass of hot milk for me – I’d forgotten to mention that I wanted ‘caffe’ with my ‘latte’. I tried my hardest to look like that was indeed exactly what I had wanted. My boss looked at me, raised his eyebrows and drank his coffee.

Anyway, from full-on news reporting I switched to travel writing and head to South Africa to work on two travel books for the Greenwood Guides. 500 places to stay, 36,000km, many thousands of photos and one flat tyre later I returned home. I spent a further six months working from home – just me and the cat – writing a book on everything from hot air ballooning safaris to ballroom dancing, shark dives to Zulu history.

One day – via a happy twist of fate – I spotted a random advert for a TV presenting job (this NEVER happens). Two weeks later I was at a screen test, a month later they kindly offered me the job and six years later I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some amazing adventures and fascinating projects.

Currently, I present photography, wildlife and adventure stories for the BBC’s One Show but most of my time is now spent on the other side of the camera as a producer and writer.

Be it photographing wild cats in Scotland or developing a series on natural resources, editing a doc on supertankers or interviewing a bear attack victim, working in TV continues to offer me amazing chances to investigate new subjects, meet new people and travel to new places… so long may it continue.