Michaela Strachan: 40 Years in Television, The Apex, Bury St Edmunds, April 27 – By Richard Bryson
If you are aiming to become a television presenter it pays to make an impression at your audition.
A young Michaela Strachan (pictured above) did just that when trying to join the cast of the children’s show “The Wide Awake Club”, and she repeats her attention-grabbing job application at the start of her one-woman show at The Apex.
Holding a rubber chicken in one hand she struts and high kicks across the stage singing along to Spitting Image’s “Chicken Song”.
This rather bizarre intro encapsulates the Strachan appeal … big smile, an irrepressible sense of fun and a real “have-a-go” attitude.
There’s no interviewer on stage with her, just a big screen showing stills and videos of her wide-ranging career from knockabout fun with the likes of Timmy Mallett, to nightclub presenting, wildlife watching and skating on “Dancing On Ice”.
There’s the odd detour from upbeat accounts of the Strachan career trajectory- like dealing with tabloid stories that labelled her a bimbo and falsely linking her with other stars of the 80s, like Jason Donovan – but she just laughs them off.
Later though she admits that if social media had been around at the start of her working life she would have found it very tough.
Glancing at the age range of the audience I’m guessing many have come to hear tales about “The Really Wild Show” and “Springwatch”.
While there is film of fun Michaela getting what looks like an underwater teeth clean from a wrasse, joining in with football playing elephants and bravely feeding fish to sharks, the mood changes when she discusses the programme that highlighted the cruelty of the Chinese bear bile industry.
Having been described as the “soft underbelly of wildlife reporting” this was Strachan in serious mode and far removed from her scatty children’s TV host.
There are some behind-the-scenes revelations on how they film Springwatch (a team of around a 100 technicians, camera crews and support staff descend on a remote location and create their own little village) plus some amusing outtakes usually centrering on double entendres.
Tits, boobs and black cocks are all ornithologically correct but inevitably they induce sniggers from the crew or viewers.
It’s clear Strachan and Chris Packham, having worked together for many years, have developed a nice double act.
Strachan avoids letting us into her personal life, though she does mention her double mastectomy and the reconstructive surgery she had in 2014 after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
Typically her good humour shines through when she describes her breasts as feeling like coconuts, calling them Pina and Colada.
In keeping with the tone of her show, let’s finish with a fun fact.
The group “Scouting For Girls” wrote a love song about Strachan … and they even sang it to her at a gig.
“It was a weird feeling singing along but I’m a fan of the group and I had to join in,” she says before adding, “No band has written a song about Chris Packham or David Attenborough, have they?”
I guess some farmers might one day come up with a not so complimentary ditty about Packham, but that’s another story.
