Saturday Magazine - 03.09.2019

Words by: Tricia Martin

70 70 SATURDAY MAGAZINESATURDAY MAGAZINE

IN TOMORROW’S

MAGAZINE

The best beauty buys PLUS Sherrie Hewson on

the loves of her life AND delicious cherry recipes Free with the

LAST WORD

Steve

Backshall

Do you watch

a lot of TV?

I don’t watch

enough, and it should

include an awful lot

more Love Island than

it does! If you work in

TV you need to know

about what’s popular.

Do you ever

cry watching

TV or films?

Yes! I am the most

emotional person. The thing

that makes me cry more than

anything else is the Paralympics.

I’m welling up thinking about it.

What would you stay up late

to watch, thinking, ‘Just

one more episode...’?

I haven’t been hooked on a

series since House of Cards. I

was absolutely obsessed with it.

What do you and Helen

watch together?

My choice is satire and politics.

Helen didn’t watch that stuff

before we got together, but now

we’ll go for things like Mock The

Week. And she got me into Big

Little Lies. I’ll miss a couple of

episodes then bug Helen by

saying, ‘What’s happening now?’

And she’s like, ‘SHUT

UP! I’m not going to

recap them for you!’

After Strictly,

would you do

a challenge

show again?

I’m doing Celebrity

Mastermind, and

I hope they’ll

let me pick

something like

sharks, snakes

or venom for my specialist

subject. Would I do

MasterChef? I am an utterly

chaotic cook so it could be

a disastrous thing to do...

Hell, yes! Why not?

Were there times making

Expedition... when you

nearly came a cropper?

There were far too many when

we thought, ‘Hmmm... that was

too close for comfort’. Rock falls

were a big thing. We had four

separate expeditions where we

were lucky no one was hurt.

Will you step back from

work at some point so Helen

can focus on rowing?

I hope so. I’d love to take a

couple of years off to be a dad

and let Helen

go back to being

an athlete. But she’s had five

years unbeaten, and taken two

Olympic golds and three world

championships, so she’s got

nothing to prove.

You’ve been building your

new eco house. How’s that?

It’s a nightmare! I think we would

have been the best episode of

Grand Designs. When it’s done

it’s going to be great though.

What’s your next project?

We haven’t figured that out. We

can’t do the same thing again or

someone will die. So we need to

work out how we can build on

what we’ve achieved in a way

that’s not going to kill anyone!

Explorer Steve made his name presenting nature shows,

including The Really Wild Show and Deadly 60, and took part in

Strictly in 2014. He’s married to rower Helen Glover and they

have a son Logan, one. Steve – appearing in Expedition with

Steve Backshall – tells us what TV shows drive him wild...

‘Would I do

MasterChef?

Hell, yes! I’m

a chaotic cook

so it could be

disastrous...’

Steve with

wife Helen

EXPEDITION WITH

STEVE BACKSHALL

Sun 8pm Dave. Steve’s latest

book, Expedition, is out now