I host Springwatch – but fans always remember me from late night 80s show with Pop Idol icon, says Michaela Strachan
SHE’S the face of much-loved BBC wildlife shows and stars in the new series of Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales.
But it’s a very different programme that nature-loving Michaela Strachan is often remembered for when she’s stopped by fans in the street.
The 57-year-old, who now lives in South Africa, has had a varied career from her time in musical theatre to making pop music and hosting children’s television shows.
And among her more surprising TV credits is a lively late 80s and early 90s music show called The Hit Man and Her.
Running for four years on Granada, the music show became a cult phenomenon despite airing in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It saw Pop Idol legend Pete Waterman and Michaela travel to clubs all over the north of the country documenting revellers’ nights out.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun to promote BBC 2’s Pilgrimage, Springwatch host Michaela said: “Do you know, I’m astonished how many people come up to me and say the Hitman and Her.
“I mean, not that that’s the one that most people say, but I’m just surprised how many people say it. And the funniest thing is, most people come up to you and go, Michaela Strachan, Hitman and Her, and they laugh. It always makes me giggle because I think that’s such a funny reaction, isn’t it? I get it, you know, the Hitman and Her, but what was that all about?”
The Hit Man refers to Waterman on account of his illustrious hit-making career in the industry while the less flattering ‘Her’ was given to up-and-coming Michaela due to the fact she hadn’t officially signed for the role when it was announced and in theory could have been replaced.
She continued: “So probably about 48 weeks of the year, we used to do the show. And I mean, who watches television now at two in the morning, nobody? You know, most people just look at their social media or something, or YouTube.
“I’m just amazed how many people were watching it. But I guess most people these days, it’s the Really Wild Show that has the fondest memories for people.
“We went into clubs like Cinderella, Rockefellers, all of these… Mr. Smiths, and all of these clubs that just, I don’t think, exist any longer. And they were real, you could see the fashion at the time, the music at the time, and we’d just descend on these clubs and make a two-hour-long show as live.”
Fast forward three decades and Michaela has long left the club scene behind and has turned inward on a journey of self-discovery.
As part of the new Pilgrimage line-up, which also features Spencer Matthews and Christine McGuinness, Michaela travelled some 220km by foot and bus across North Wales including a hike up Mount Snowdon.
The trip saw them learn about Celtic early Christian saints and saw them travel to Bardsey Island also known as the ‘Island of 20,000 saints’.
It was a particularly emotional time for Michaela as it followed the deaths of four people very close to her including her best friend, who died from a similar form of breast cancer that Michaela herself had overcome years earlier.
She said: “In a normal situation when I’m robust, I would have thoroughly enjoyed really getting stuck in, but I’d come straight from my best friend’s funeral and so I was quite fragile. Those sorts of conversations can be quite triggering.
“I found it emotionally challenging, there’s no doubt about it. But having said that, by the end of it, I think I look back on it and think what a gift it was to have those two weeks, to be able to explore my own emotions and actually process various different grief scenarios that I’ve been through. I lost four people in my close circle last year and so there was a lot of grief to process.
“I think actually it was an amazing opportunity to be able to do that. And, you know, other people have said to me, but isn’t that difficult when you’ve got a film crew? Yes, of course, it can be challenging when you’ve got a film crew with a camera pointing in your face. But to be able to actually explore your emotions for two weeks and not have to compartmentalise your emotions and put them in a drawer that you lock was probably a real gift.
“And also what was a gift was to meet people along the way that were just so kind and gentle. I think we live in a world that can be very abrupt and I think people can be quite abrupt sometimes. And yet you meet people, it doesn’t matter what faith they’re from, but if they’re connected to their own faith and in a spiritual way, they tend to be very kind, gentle people with words of wisdom and comfort.”
Michaela recalled speaking with co-star Spencer Matthews about his late brother Michael who died descending Everest in 1999 after becoming the youngest Brit to reach the summit at just 22.
Matthews recently filmed thedocumentary Finding Michael for Disney+ that saw him set set off in search of his brother’s body.
I’d come straight from my best friend’s funeral and so I was quite fragile.
Michaela Strachan
Their chat led Michaela to have an emotional conversation that evening with her partner, whose calming nature helped her deal with her sadness.
She said: “My partner is fantastic at talking me down. So he was, you know, he was just so sweet and kind.
“And I realised that I probably needed to have a little breakdown like that. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking dramatic breakdown or anything. It was just an appropriate cry for what was happening to me and the conversation we had at the time.
“So I think it probably did me a lot of good actually to just release. That’s what we need to do. We don’t talk about death enough, I don’t think.
“And we don’t talk about things that matter enough some of the time. And so I don’t see it as a bad thing. I see it as actually quite a good thing.”
It wasn’t all tears, in fact there were plenty of uplifting moments along the way.
There was a relaxing hot tub session, invigorating cold water plunges, meditation at a Buddhist centre and a trip to St. Winifred’s Church, where they went for a dip in its well.
“We had some real laughs on the pilgrimage as well,” said Michaela. “You know, I wasn’t sort of always coping with grief and sad. You know, we had some really fun times as well.”
Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales (Fridays, 9pm, BBC Two/iPlayer)