ONE OF BRITAIN'S best-known TV naturalists is announced today as a surprise addition to the line-up for this year’s Gloucester History Festival Spring Weekend.

Chris Packham, presenter of the BBC series Springwatch and Winterwatch will launch three full days of talks, interviews and debates with a special appearance on the eve of the event in April.

Chris Packham will be on stage at Gloucester’s iconic thirteenth-century Blackfriars Priory on Thursday, April 11 at 7.30pm alongside the History Festival President, Oxford historian and TV presenter Professor Janina Ramirez.

The Really Wild Show star will discuss his love of wildlife, his favourite TV moments, the highs and lows of natural history broadcasting, and ask what the past can teach us about the environment, nature conservation and the future for the natural world.

Packham’s epic TV series Earth was broadcast last year, tracing the 4.5 billion-year story of our home from its creation to the beginning of human existence.

‘We are entranced by the beauty of our planet,’ said the filmmaker and conservationist.

‘Wherever you are, you have beneath your feet the most precious object in the universe; a living, breathing life sustaining world.’

Other highlights of the Spring Weekend include the acclaimed TV historian Michael Wood discussing one of the world’s greatest poets, Du Fu, Suzannah Lipscomb recording an episode of her hit podcast Not Just The Tudors, the real story of the Siege of Gloucester in 1643, award-winning Empireland author Sathnam Sanghera and a timely debate on the war in Ukraine.

Tickets for Chris Packham at the Spring Weekend cost £15, go on general sale at 10.00am on Friday, March 1 2024 and are available online from gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk, by phone on 07834 406228 and from the Festival Box Office at the Museum of Gloucester, Brunswick Road GL1 1HP