Julia Bradbury
Just how do you become famous for walking? Given Julia Bradbury’s CV includes everything from travel shows to Watchdog, via a stint singing on a reality show, walking seems one of the less likely topics for her name to become synonymous with. Still, Julia’s delighted that it happened.
“My dad’s a Derbyshire lad and I’ve been walking since I was a nipper,” she explains. “Walking has always been part of my life. How that segued with my professional life was one of those funny little coincidences. I was having lunch with a really nice commissioner from the BBC, and he was about to commission a drama documentary about Alfred Wainwright, the fell walker. They were thinking it would be nice to film a handful of his favourite walks, and use those alongside the drama/documentary.
“The thought at that point was that they’d get man but my lovely commissioner asked me about walking, I said I’d been walking in the Peak District for years. Did I know who Alfred Wainwright was? Of course I know who Alfred Wainwright was! He’s a walking God! And that’s how it began.
“Although I’d done many travel series, to pull the boots on and traipse through the Lake District was very different. I was doing Watchdog at the time, which has a very serious journalistic skew to it, so it was a real departure. I’ve always tried to embrace variety, I like to push myself, and I think it’s a good idea not to be pigeonholed. And now here I am these days where my hobby has rolled into my career. It’s lovely.”
After covering Wainwright’s walks, not to mention Britain’s canals and railways, Julia has taken the rambling international – “we’ve spread our wings” – with trips across South Africa and Germany and Iceland.
“That was fascinating – and very timely with the ash cloud!” laughs Julia. “That programme had more of a documentary feel, more drama to it, and we’re looking to do more of those. I can’t say where yet, but the world is our lobster, as they say, but I’m keen that the UK remains the cornerstone; I always like to keep at least one foot on this fair isle.”
It’s not going to be for a while though as Julia is expecting her first child in August.
“I’m slowing the pace a couple of notches, on the advice of my doctor. He keeps seeing me on television walking across volcanoes and up mountains and says ‘I hope you were filming that last year..?’!”
In the meantime, Julia will be back on our screens shortly, with Kill It, Cut It, Use It.
“It’s the follow up to Kill It, Cook It, Eat It,” explains Julia. “That was about our relationship with meat, what we know about the meat we consume. We eat huge amounts but it’s surprising how few people think about where it comes from, from field to fork.
“The new series is about the proclivity of animal by-products in everyday items, everything from beer to cosmetics, your car, kitchen utensils... It might be a rendered down bit of animal, it might be animal fat, but there’s probably something you use on a daily basis that contains an animal by product.
“Sea food is a fascinating episode. Prawn and shrimp have something to do with hairspray... “ Julia laughs. “I won’t say any more, but it’s going to throw vegetarians into a turmoil!”
Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury is released on DVD on June 6.