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Kate Humble

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Kate Humble
Kate Humble at the Monmouthshire Show in 2012
Born (1968-12-12) 12 December 1968 (age 55)
Wimbledon, London, England, UK
Occupation(s)Television presenter,
RSPB President
SpouseLudo Graham (1992-present)
WebsiteKateHumble.co.uk

Katherine "Kate" Humble (born 12 December 1968) is an English television presenter, mainly for the BBC, specialising in wildlife and science programmes. She was also the President of the RSPB until 2013.

Early life and education

Born in Wimbledon, London, to Nick Humble and Diana Carter, she is the granddaughter of Bill Humble, a well-known pre-Second World War aviator. She is also the great-great-great granddaughter of Joseph Humble, colliery manager of Hartley Colliery at the time of the Hartley Colliery Disaster. She grew up in Bray in Berkshire and attended the Abbey School in Reading.[1]

I was a very bad student. I had a fantastic Latin teacher which did mean I did Latin A-Level but other than that my school career wasn't something to be proud of.

— Kate Humble, BBC, 25 September 2001

After leaving school she travelled through Africa from Cape Town to Cairo, doing various jobs including waitressing, driving safari trucks and working on a crocodile farm. She has returned to Africa many times since. In 1994, she travelled around Madagascar, the subject of her first article for The Daily Telegraph travel section. Since then she has written articles about diving and cycling in Cuba, an 'exploding' lake in Cameroon and hippopotamus conservation work in Ghana.

Career

In 1990, Humble appeared for the first time as an actress in a TV production, Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, and was credited as "Lauren Heston … The redhead". She was the assistant to a casting director who was looking for an actress to play a brief nude scene, and she got the job herself.[2][3]

Humble started her television career as a researcher, later transferring to presenting programmes such as Top Gear, Tomorrow's World and the 2001 series The Holiday Programme – You call the shots where the team travelled the world[4] doing whatever viewers recommended using the then-novel media of text messaging and emailing the team as they travelled.

At Springwatch Farm

Humble has specialised in presenting wildlife programmes, including Animal Park, Springwatch and Autumnwatch with Bill Oddie, Simon King, Chris Packham and Martin Hughes-Games and later, Wild in Africa and Seawatch.

From 2000 to 2005, she presented a BBC series called Rough Science, in which a number of scientists were set various challenges to be solved using basic tools and supplies.

Humble presented The Blue Planet Live! on the 2008 UK tour at Wembley Arena, St. David's Hall in Cardiff and at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.[5]

Her BBC television series, The Hottest Place On Earth, is a record of a month spent living with the Afar people in Ethiopia's hostile Danakil Depression.[6]

She occasionally performs on the lecture circuit with a show based on her experiences with wildlife, titled Harassed by Hippos and Battered by Cod: A Humble Way to Make a Living.[7]

On 16 February 2009, she made her first appearance in Countdown's Dictionary Corner.[8]

She founded the web site Stuff Your Rucksack that helps organisations around the world find the items they need by matching them with travellers.[9]

On 29 July 2009, Humble was the subject for the programme Who Do You Think You Are?[10] where she discovered that she had family connections to the Hartley Colliery Disaster. Her paternal grandfather Bill Humble was a test pilot who tested the Hawker Tempest and her maternal grandfather Stan Carter was an officer in the RAF and after being shot down was held as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III at the time of "The Great Escape".

In August 2009, Humble presented a series of programmes for the BBC in which she made a two thousand mile journey across the Middle East, following the ancient frankincense trade route of Arabia which first connected the Arab world with the West. The series culminates in her presenting frankincense, that she has carried throughout the journey, to be used in a Christmas service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.[11]

She was recently[when?] on holiday in the north-eastern region of Afghanistan where there were no signs of conflict, but where the Wakhi locals were expected to be hostile. Instead, Humble found they were "amongst the most astonishing, hospitable, warm, genuine people" she has ever met. They were also hard and tough, and Humble believes that "if anyone thinks they are going to win a war against an Afghan they are insane!" She is writing about her experiences in Afghanistan for a forthcoming publication.[12]

From 3 to 7 May 2010 she appeared as the dictionary corner guest on Countdown.

In February 2011, Humble presented a three-part series of programmes, The Spice Trail, on the trail of six of the world's most valuable spices revealing their history, trade, mythology and usage.[13]

In March 2012, she co-presented with Dr Helen Czerski a three part BBC series, Orbit.[14] In July, Humble co-presented Volcano Live with Professor Iain Stewart.[15]

Personal life

Humble is married to the television producer Ludo Graham. They first met when she was aged 16, and married in Newbury, Berkshire, in 1992, when she was 23. In 2010, they moved from Chiswick, West London, to the village of Trellech in the Wye Valley, where they had wanted to live for "a very long time".[16] Humble now owns her own farm after working on Lambing Live. She has a sheep called Humble, named after her, that currently[when?] lives with her friend and co-worker Adam Henson. Humble is a naturist who "likes to get closer to nature by being naked".[17]

On 3 October 2009, Humble was appointed President of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.[18] She is an honorary graduate of the Open University. Humble is a beekeeper and a member of the British Beekeepers Association.[19][20]

Programmes

References

  1. ^ "Abbey Junior School, Reading Stories School Global Gardens network". Retrieved 15 May 2015.
  2. ^ Internet Movie Database — Kate Humble
  3. ^ "Kate Humble interview". Daily Mirror. 8 November 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  4. ^ "Holiday: You Call the Shots - Episode Guide". LocateTV. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  5. ^ BBC's The Blue Planet Live! Archived 2008-01-26 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "BBC HD Programmes — Hottest Place on Earth". BBC. 26 October 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  7. ^ All-Electric Productions: Kate Humble Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Channel 4 catch-up page accurate on 18 February 2009". Channel 4. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  9. ^ "The scheme". The Guardian. London. 1 July 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  10. ^ Warman, Matt (24 July 2009). "Kate Humble: Interview". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  11. ^ "The Frankincense Trail". BBC. 11 November 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  12. ^ "Humble beginnings" (PDF). Sesame. No. 244. Open University. Spring 2010. p. 31.
  13. ^ "The Spice Trail". Bbc.co.uk. 16 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2014. The episodes were: Part 1 – Pepper & Cinnamon; Part 2 – Nutmeg & Cloves; Part 3 – Saffron & Vanilla.
  14. ^ "BBC Two - Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey, Episode 1". BBC. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  15. ^ Grant, Olly (9 July 2012). "Volcano Live, BBC Two, preview". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 11 July 2012.
  16. ^ Humble, Kate (2013). Humble by Nature. Headline.
  17. ^ Claire Carter (7 September 2014). "Kate Humble urges everyone to enjoy nature by getting naked". The Daily Telegraph.
  18. ^ Jamieson, Alastair (3 October 2009). "Springwatch star Kate Humble appointed president of RSPB". www.telegraph.co.uk. London. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
  19. ^ "Bee Part Of It: Have Kate Humble's bees survived?". BBC. 3 March 2010. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
  20. ^ "Kate Humble: September". Bakewell Today. Retrieved 17 September 2009.
  21. ^ IMDb

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