Philippa Forrester

Philippa Clare Ryan Forrester^[1] (born 20 September 1968 in Winchester, Hampshire) is an English television and radio presenter, producer and author. She has presented shows such as Tomorrow's World, The Heaven and Earth Show and Robot Wars. She has also made wildlife programmes with her husband, Charlie Hamilton James.

In recent years she starred on a number of Lloyds Pharmacy adverts and then took a break to spend time with her children. In September 2013, she made her TV comeback co-presenting farming show Harvest on the BBC.

Education

Forrester was educated at Westgate School, a co-educational comprehensive school in Winchester, Hampshire, and at Peter Symond's College in the same city. She holds a degree in English from the University of Birmingham,^[2] where she appeared on the internal Students Guild television station.

Career

Forrester first worked as a children's presenter for BFBS television in 1986, and was often seen reading out birthday cards onscreen. She became a presenter on Children's BBC from the late 1980s, becoming a more regular fixture alongside Toby Anstis from July 1990 until 1994. She then went on to host many programmes including Tomorrow's World, Barking Mad, The Heaven and Earth Show and Robot Wars series 1-3 and 5 and 6, before being replaced by Jayne Middlemiss in Series 7.^[2]

She also co-presented the BBC's coverage of the solar eclipse of August 1999. At the end of the same year she was also part of the corporation's team covering the turn of the new Millennium, and was duped into appearing on the spoof documentary Brass Eye's 2001 paedophilia special, in which she wore a large pair of gloves, and explained how a paedophile could use them to touch children through a screen, such as a television screen.^[3]

She has appeared in television adverts for Lloyds Pharmacy^[4] and supports the Recycle Now campaign to encourage more people to take up home composting.^[5]

Her first collaboration with her husband was My Halcyon River. Following its success, in 2003 they set up a production company, Halcyon Media, which specialises in wildlife productions. In 2007, they co-produced An Otter in the Family, a short documentary series about the adoption of an otter cub called Grace and their attempts to raise her as a wild animal in order to be released into the wild.^[6] She is a co-presenter with Brett Westwood on World on the Move, a BBC Radio 4 series that started in 2008 on migration in the animal kingdom.

Forrester and her husband also produced the four-part Halcyon River Diaries, the first episode of which was broadcast on 16 May 2010 on BBC1. The series follows the wildlife found near their home. An additional episode was shown at Christmas, 2010.

In September 2013, she made a TV comeback co-presenting the BBC show Harvest, which followed the progress of Britain's vegetable, cereal and fruit harvests.

She is an avid environmentalist,^[5] and became a vegetarian after eating a vegetarian sausage on Robot Wars.^[7] She took a part-time degree in Ecology and Conservation at Birkbeck, University of London while presenting Tomorrow's World.^[2]

She has been Vice President of St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital and Patron of the Seahorse Trust with Nick Baker, Vice President of the Avon Wildlife Trust with Simon King,^[8] and is a brand ambassador for Anglian Windows.

Personal life

Forrester married wildlife cameraman and producer Charlie Hamilton James in July 2004.^[9] They have three sons, Fred, Arthur and Gus.^[10]

Bibliography

• The River, Orion, 2004, ISBN 0-7528-5685-5
• Halcyon River Diaries (with Charlie Hamilton James), Preface Publishing, 2010 ISBN 978-1-84809-225-9
• Get Out: Halcyon River Activity Book (with her sons Gus Hamilton James, Fred Hamilton James, and Arthur Hamilton James), Preface Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84809-226-6

References

External links

• Philippa Forrester at the Internet Movie Database
• Philippa Forrester on Twitter
• Publishers' page on The River