"A great crime and a great tragedy" if we don't learn from the pandemic - Kate Humble in Horsham

The tragedy now would be not to act on all that we have learnt, says TV presenter Kate Humble who is hitting the road with a new live tour heading to The Capitol Theatre, Horsham on Wednesday, March 23.

An Evening With Kate Humble promises to take audiences on an uplifting, inspiring, funny and emotional rollercoaster of a journey.

Kate is best known for shows including BBC’s Animal Park, Springwatch and Lambing Live, as well as the recent Channel 5 series Escape To The Farm and current hit Kate Humble’s Coastal Britain.

As Kate takes to the road, audiences can expect tales of travel, adventures and animals. They can also ask questions.

“I have done a smaller theatre tour before but not for three or four years.

Have you read: Why her Kitchen Discos were so special for Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Guildford and Bexhill dates

“I published a book right at the beginning of lockdown when we didn’t know that there was going to be a lockdown and usually I would go on the road with the book but that didn’t happen. So I have felt a bit cheated of actually seeing people in the flesh. And people forget that when you are on TV, one of the strangest things is that you have very very little contact with your audiences ever. Perhaps that’s a good thing! I’m never sure whether people are not throwing things at their television when they’re watching me!

“But I’m really excited to get together with people again and to do this tour. It is just lovely to get back together again and to show that we are all a gang on a night out and just to have a wonderful time together.

“I will talk about the things I have done on TV and I’ve got lots of stories about perhaps the unexpected and less glamorous side of TV when animals and people behave slightly badly but I do also love the audience to be as involved as they want to be.

“It’s fairly standard to do a Q&A at the end of the show but I’ve come to realise that it can be quite daunting to ask people to ask questions in front of lots of other and also some people are perhaps thinking ‘Well, I just want to have a G&T and to go home!’

Have you read: Everything you need to know: Chichester Festival Theatre summer 2022

“So what I do is I get people to write down their questions at the beginning and put them into a box and then I have the box at the end and answer questions from it.”

Part of the interest will be that Kate is now operating, as we all, are in a world different to the one we inhabited when she first wanted to tour.

“I think we did all become more conscious and more appreciative of nature during the pandemic, of our own country instead of just thinking all the time that a holiday had to involve going to somewhere else.

“We did become more appreciative of the astonishing island that we live on and how diverse it is and how extraordinarily beautiful it is and how much variety it has. And I have been incredibly lucky over the past two years to be reminded of that.”

How that increased consciousness can be translated into direct benefit for the environment is of course, as Kate says, the $1,000,000 question.

“I really don’t know. All I can really hope is to continue, I hope, to inspire people through the books that I write and the programmes that I make and the articles that I write. What is really interesting is talking to people. I don’t have children but talking to people that do have children and talking to children themselves, I think people do seem particularly switched on now.

“And the more we can do to look after our environment the better, simply just not to waste things.

“There are a lot of horrid things happening but really there is a lot that we can do about it. We are incredibly wasteful as a society and that is something that we really need to change.

“But it all comes down to the whole basis of our economy. We have got a cowboy economy as an American economist called it in the 1960s in that we make stuff and we use it and then we throw it away so there is constantly a demand for more stuff. The point is that what we need is a spaceman economy where you can’t waste anything.

“You fix it and programmes like The Repair Shop celebrating the craft of fixing things are just great, the joy of something that has a history and a legacy and a provenance. I love that whole idea that we can take great pleasure from something through being more self-sufficient.

“The time that people had during the pandemic allowed them to rediscover or to discover for the first time crafts and the joys of being in a garden or hearing birdsong or just looking out of a window.

“It was a wonderful joyous reassurance. And I think the really important thing is that we don’t allow the experience that we’ve had of the pandemic to be wasted. It was a hugely difficult experience emotionally and economically but it would be a great crime and a great tragedy if that we didn’t take away from it some great lessons and some great positives.

“I can’t dictate how people behave. All I can do is remind people that it is such a great joy to go for a walk, to listen to birdsong, just to be out in nature. If I can do just a little bit to remind people of that, I will be happy – the fact that it is something that we can all share. You don’t have to have welly boots to go out and enjoy it. It is something that we can all enjoy but everybody needs to look after it. I hope through the shows I do and through my writing that I can help people think about taking care of our amazing natural word.”

Away from TV, Kate Humble lives in the Wye Valley in South Wales, where she runs the 117-acre Humble By Nature working farm and rural skills centre, with husband Ludo and farming mentors Tim and Sarah.

Kate is also a best-selling author, with her latest book Home Cooked released in February. Local booksellers will also join Kate on the tour giving fans the opportunity to buy signed copies of Home Cooked and her bestselling back catalogue.

Presented by Nigel McIntyre and Gareth Watson, An Evening With Kate Humble tours from March 22 until May 24.

For more information head to http://nothird.co.uk/live-shows/kate-humble/

For the latest breaking news where you live in Sussex, follow us on Twitter @Sussex_World and like us on Facebook @SussexWorldUK

Culture Spark set to ignite Chichester district arts and community celebration

Celebrating one of Britain’s most beloved performers, Dame Vera Lynn

A book about loss and hope

A remarkable tale of recovery from a rare form of cancer