The huge electric gates have cameras on them. When they open, numerous trees come into view – oak, ash, sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, cherry, beech. Look closely and you see cameras suspended from branches like digital nests. Surveillance has become a necessity in Chris Packham’s life, and he’s not happy about it. “It’s on police advice,” he says. “Unfortunately, we’re really well guarded now. And that upsets me. There’s a Yoko Ono song that says a psychotic builds a castle; a neurotic lives in it. And I don’t want to fall into either of those categories, so I hate the idea we’re living in a stockade.”
The TV presenter, naturalist and activist has been making all sorts of news recently. There’s the BBC TV series Earth, about five pivotal moments in our planet’s history, which saw him touted as the new David Attenborough when broadcast this summer. Then there’s the activism – in April he called for “every last person who cares” about the planet to join Extinction Rebellion. A month later, he won £90,000 in libel damages at the high court after an online campaign published on the Country Squire Magazine website falsely accused him of fraud and dishonesty in relation to his charity work.
