Axed Springwatch presenter Martin Hughes-Games: white, middle-aged men an endangered species on TV

A former Springwatch presenter who claims he lost his job for being “white, middle class and old-aged” says he remains too upset to watch the show.

Martin Hughes-Games said his 12 years on the programme were one of the happiest times of his life until the BBC told him his services were no longer required.

He believes he will never work for the BBC again, as the corporation seeks to make its presenting line-up more diverse.

Hughes-Games, 63, said: “I think the commissioner’s a bit grumpy with me, because I’m white, middle-class, old-aged… who wants me on their show?

“I’m an endangered species. Let’s hope that conservation efforts keep me going, rather than going extinct.”

He pointed out that there are “white, middle class, old-aged presenters who are actually quite good at their jobs”.

The presenter announced on his social media account in autumn 2016 that he had lost his job. Fans complained and the BBC appeared to have a change of heart, keeping on the show in a revised role until early 2018.

Next week he returns to the screen to present an ITV documentary, Counting Tigers: A Survival Special.

But he has not got over the pain of leaving Springwatch. In an interview with Radio Times, he said he finds it “very, very difficult to watch” his old colleagues, Michaela Strachan and Chris Packham.

“I find it very, very difficult to watch. I do a bit, but I feel so close to them, both professionally and emotionally, that I often find myself adjusting the tappets on one of my old motorbikes or something rather than watching it, because it hurts,” he said.

Hughes-Games said he remains in regular contact with the pair via email and text, and has been to stay with Strachan at her home in South Africa.

“I do miss Chris and Michaela terribly,” he said. “[We] had a lovely chemistry which was the most wonderful thing to be a part of. It was just great, it really was.

“My abiding memory is laughing an enormous amount with Chris and Michaela. Working with them on the programme was one of the happiest times that I ever had in 40 years in telly.”

Strachan and Packham now co-present Springwatch with the biologist Gillian Burke.

Hughes-Games has been spending his time at home looking after his two-year-old son, Sam, but said he could not help sending in ideas to the Springwatch team.

He explained: “I do think that because I’m at home, looking after Sam - which I love, but which is exhausting - and doing a lot of gardening and so on, my brain is quite idle. And, after 40 years in telly, and 30 years as a producer, you cannot stop putting your producer head on.”

For his new ITV show, Hughes-Games goes to India, home to 70 per cent of the world’s tigers. Two tigers are killed there by poachers every week.

The animals remain in demand in China, where they are thought to have aphrodisiac powers. Hughes-Games said: “They are bloody idiots. Why do people still think that they’ll get an erect penis if they eat some bits of a tiger? You know, if I eat a bit of my dog, will I start barking? If I eat a bit of a cow, will I start mooing? It just drives me mad that there’s still this massive demand for tiger parts.”