Blue House Farm nature reserve in North Fambridge saw close to 350 people flock to it last weekend to listen to television presenter Michaela Strachan talk about her life and career.

Michaela has been gracing our screens for 32 years, working on TV shows including The Really Wild Show, Michaela’s Wild Challenge, BBC Countryfile, The Orangutan Diaries and BBC Springwatch, to name just a few. Michaela brought the audience to hysterics as she delved into the behind the scenes of her television career and the struggles of working with animals, including having a young group of orangutans steal her makeup bag and destroy all the contents from up in the trees, with two weeks left of filming!

Her stories and adventures spanned the seven corners of the globe, before focusing in on her time working on the Watches: Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2012. Michaela Strachan is an avid conservationist and also brought up some of the struggles that our wildlife is facing at the minute and the importance of landscape scale conservation efforts.

The event was held to support the work of Essex Wildlife Trust in the county. Michaela urged the audience to continue supporting the Trust by becoming a member, and people left the event inspired to help protect their local wildlife, as well as a photo with the television star herself.