Interview
Interview
Michaela Strachan once upstaged Catherine Zeta Jones with a teaspoon
Talking famous dolphins, dodgy fashion tips and Brad Pitt with the TV legend ahead of her upcoming live shows
“The hardest thing is picking what to talk about!” laughs Michaela Strachan, wildlife presenter, kids TV icon, pop star, ice-skater, and now star of not one, but two upcoming live stage tours. “I’ve been part of the culture,” she says, chatting from her home in Cape Town ahead of Not Just A Wild Life – heading to UK theatres next spring. “The Wide-Awake Club was very much part of Saturday morning children’s tele culture. The Hitman And Her was very much part of the clubbing and fashion scene in the 80s and 90s. I’ve done music, I’ve done a vegetarian cookery program… I’ve done a program about ghosts… I’ve done all sorts of crazy stuff!”
Expect all that and more in Strachan’s one-woman walk through her varied career, but head to A Wild Evening to zero in on all the juiciest behind-the-scenes stories from her most famous life as a wildlife presenter. Assembling the Avengers of animal TV presenters, A Wild Evening also brings in Gordon Buchanan, Lizzie Daly and Hannah Stitfall to share the stage with Strachan in Guildford, London and Cambridge this November.
“It’s two different generations of presenters coming together to tell stories about wildlife filmmaking,” says Strachan, describing it as an extended live version of the “making of” section at end of most wildlife shows. “It’s the stories of how we filmed it, why we filmed it, and how difficult it was. It’s going to be really fun!”
Who better, then, to get stuck in a lift with to ask the important questions…
Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?
Charles Darwin. Because I’d like to chat to him about the theory of evolution and The Origin Of Species. The question I’d like to ask him is, what does he think about how we have evolved as a species? I like to think sometimes about what I call ‘the absurdity of humanity’, because some of the things that we do as a human species are completely absurd. You know, I think about what I’ve just done, Dancing On Ice. I mean, what on earth are we doing, dancing on ice?! So I’d love to just chew the cud with him about how we’ve evolved, why we’re doing things we’re doing, and where he thinks that evolution is going to go.
I think that would be fun, but that would be quite a heavy conversation to have. So with Charles Darwin, I’d like to have Brad Pitt in the corner of the lift, because I’ve always rather fancied Brad Pitt, and I think he’s gorgeous. And so it’d be nice just to have a bit of eye candy there. And I could get his opinion, occasionally.
And Deacon Blue. Because it’d be nice to have a bit of music while we’re having this very serious discussion about the evolution of humanity.
So you, Charles Darwin, Brad Pitt and all of Deacon Blue?
It’s a big lift, okay.
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
The men’s England rugby team. I mean, you know, they’re all big blokes, aren’t they? Who wants to be stuck in a lift with a bunch of rugby players after a game? They’d be smelly, I’ll be squashed in a corner, I wouldn’t be able to breathe, and they’d all be towering over me.
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve ever had with a famous person?
So Scouting For Girls had a song about me called ‘Michaela Strachan Broke My Heart When I Was 12’, and I went to see them at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush. They asked me if it was okay if they pointed me out in the audience, and so they sing the song, and they do point me out, and suddenly I’ve got 1,000 people all staring at me. They all lit their phones and put their lights on, and they all sung “Michaela Strachan, you broke my heart when I was 12 / It ain’t going to happen for me and the Strachan…”. It was the most surreal moment of my life.
What’s the weirdest interaction you’ve ever had with a famous animal?
I was filming for a series called Animal Rescue Squad, and I went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida, and I filmed a dolphin called Winter. Winter the dolphin had got stuck in a fishing net and lost its tail, and so they were making it a prosthetic. I went to the place where they make all the prosthetics, and they tried all these different tails on Winter the dolphin, and eventually they got a tail that worked, and the dolphin could swim again. But then, Hollywood ended up making a film about Winter, so he became famous. It was a great movie, I really enjoyed it. And I knew the star!
What was the last show that you went to?
Well, I live in Cape Town. So it was here, and it was Joseph And The Technicolor Dreamcoat. And the week before I saw Chicago. They were both absolutely fabulous.
Do you see a lot of musicals?
I love musicals. I trained for musicals at musical theater, so I love them, and Chicago is one of my favorites. What’s not to love about women murdering their husbands?! It does make me laugh, the sort of things we make musicals about. Sweeney Todd is a musical about chopping people up and making them into pies… And we make a musical about it?! What a bizarre lot we are. You see, it all comes back to the absurdity of humanity. What would Darwin make of that?
What work of yours didn’t get the attention that it deserved?
Well, I had two pop singles out, and I don’t think they got the attention they deserved. One was called ‘Happy Radio’, and it got to number 62. And one was called ‘Take Good Care Of My Heart’, and it got to number 66. Apparently, in The Guinness Book of Records, anything in the top 75 is considered a hit. So I did theoretically have two hit pop songs, but you know, that’s not really very impressive in my book. So yeah, it’s a shame. When I was doing children’s tele, I thought, oh yeah, let’s try being a pop star. And it didn’t quite work out.
There’s still time. You just need a big Netflix show to put you on a soundtrack.
Yes! Why aren’t they using ‘Happy Radio’ on Stranger Things?! I could have a resurgence of my pop career.
What did 12-year-old you imagine that you’d be doing now?
Well, because I trained for musical theater, I think I probably would have liked to have thought that I would still be on the stage. I mean, having said that, I’m 59 years old now and there’s less parts, I guess, in musicals for somebody of that age. But, you know, I would have liked to have thought that I would have made a success of it. But Cats is coming to Cape Town soon. Maybe I could be the one singing ‘Memories’.
Surely 12-year-old you would still be pretty impressed by the career you have now though?
If you had told me, at 12 years old, that I was going to be presenting programs on the BBC about British wildlife, I would have thought you were nuts. You know, I’m still excited to work for the BBC. It still is a buzz for me. And to be doing a long-running program like Spring Watch… having done, you know, an iconic program like The Really Wild Show and Countryfile, and all of those series that they call flagship programs. If you told my 12-year-old self that I would be presenting programs on British television… for 40 years?! I’d have been blown away.
What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given?
I think it would have to be my own fashion advice in the 80s. When I look back, Jesus… what was I thinking?! I mean, it was every color under the sun. It was pineapple hairstyles with as many ribbons and bows you could put in. It was enormous earrings. I used to put keyrings on earrings. I was looking back at stuff recently, because for my show, obviously, I’m doing a lot of archive research. I used to wear the most ridiculous things. I’ve got a photograph of me with these little hairbrushes attached to my earrings – they were little, but you could actually brush your hair with them. I’m surprised I don’t have ears lobes that are down to my chin.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
Demonstrating hand vacuum cleaners in a shop. I’ve never clock-watched so much in my life. Eight hours of standing at a table, vacuuming crumbs. Although I did work in a dog kennels as well, which I thought would be great fun – I thought I’d just be walking dogs – but oh no, that was just cleaning dog shit all day, from morning till dusk.
If you had to have a song playing every time you walked into a room, what would it be?
It would be the song that goes with my personality, ‘Always Look On The bright Side Of Life’. When I was having an operation, they gave me an anesthetic, and you’re supposed to count to 10. I sang instead, and I started singing that song, and you could see that they were pumping the anesthetic and thinking, ‘Oh God, knock her out quick…’.
What’s the skill that no one else knows that you’re great at?
Continuing my office clear out!Ok mag,Dec 2000,with pages of wedding pics of Catherine ZetaJones & Michael Douglas.
— Michaela Strachan (@michaelastracha) July 4, 2025
Glamorous,classy,gorgeous.
Then there’s me,with a tea spoon balanced on my nose, advertising Xmas charity spoons 4the NSPCC.
Random,comical,totally skillful obvs! pic.twitter.com/0ZxhzXFTMI
Well, it’s a skill that a few people know I’m good at, because it was in OK! magazine once, which was really embarrassing. I’m very good at balancing a teaspoon on the end of my nose. I was once helping a charity promote these teaspoons that I had something on them, I think, something to help a children’s charity. I’m very vague about the facts here… But I’m photographed with the thing on my nose for a whole full-page advert in the magazine. This was the same issue that had a story on Catherine Zeta Jones getting married to Michael Douglas, so there was this beautiful photo of Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones on one half of the double page, and me with a stupid teaspoon on my nose on the other.
What’s your controversial food opinion?
Marmite and lime marmalade is a really good combo on toast. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Do you have any superstitions?
Torvil and Dean told me you should never swim before you ice skate. I’ve looked it up, and it’s based on the idea that swimming can make your muscles feel like jelly, or like they’re less responsive. It did also say that it might be an old wives tale but, I mean, I’m not going to do something that that Torvil and Dean tell me not to do am I?
And you apparently shouldn’t eat before you swim either, which means everything’s out on a day you want to ice skate.
Oh my God, why is life is so confusing?!
Michaela Strachan – Not Just A Wild Life tours the UK in April 2026. Find tickets here
