An Evening With Mike Dilger

"The Trials and Tribulations of a Natural History Presenter"

The Essex Badger Protection Group is delighted to announce that on Friday, 28th October we will be hosting an evening with ecologist, TV wildlife presenter, publisher writer and our groups's Patron, Mike Dilger.

The Trials and Tribulations of a Natural History Presenter is an illuminating and sideways look at what it takes to produce cheap and cheerful wildlife television. Featuring some clips from The One Show, Mike reveals what often goes on behind the scenes on location and spills the beans on everything you wanted to know about TV presenting but were afraid to ask.

An ecologist, natural history presenter and writer, Mike Dilger has a life-long passion for British and tropical flora and fauna, of which he has profound experience and encyclopedic knowledge.

Mike will also be signing copies of his new book “Nightingales in November”. This brilliant almanac tells the very different personal and annual stories of twelve well-known birds we deign to call British. Through a lyrical narrative, Nightingales in November showcases amazing avian facts gleaned over decades by birdwatchers, ringers, nest recorders and migration recorders.

About Mike

Born in Stafford, Mike Dilger has been an obsessive naturalist since childhood, equally at home either on his hands and knees identifying British orchids or surveying the Amazon for hummingbirds.

Having graduated with a degree in Botany from Nottingham University and then a Master’s in Ecology from the University of Bangor, Mike’s obsession with the tropics began when studying moths in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest. This first trip led to a period of over five years surveying the forests of Vietnam, Tanzania and Peru.

After spending long periods in the back-of-beyond, which included meeting both remote tribes and rare wildlife along the way, he also managed to accumulate an impressive array of diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis & bilharzia, earning him the nick-name ‘Britain’s most diseased man’. Returning back to the UK to reacquaint himself with his first passion, British wildlife, Mike then made the sideways move from conservation to natural history television.

After a period spent presenting wildlife programmes for Channel 5 between 2000 and 2002, Mike then worked at the BBC Natural History Unit as a Reporter for ‘Britain Goes Wild’ and ‘Springwatch’ and as a Presenter for ‘Hands on Nature’ on BBC2, and a number of series on BBC Radio 4. Starting life as a freelance presenter in 2005, Mike worked as the Co-presenter for ‘CBeebies Autumnwatch’ in 2006, and as a Presenter on ‘Nature’s Calendar’ and ‘Nature’s Top 40’ for BBC2 in 2006 & 2007. Perhaps best known for his regular appearances as the ‘wild man’ on BBC1’s The One Show, for which he has made over 400 films during the last nine years, and also regularly reports on BBC1’s regional affairs programme ‘Inside Out’.

Living in the Chew Valley, south of Bristol with his partner and son, Mike’s lists his interests as gardening, birding and watching any sport!