Countryfile’s Anita Rani to guide audiences through the depths in Blue Planet tour

Anita Rani will fill Sir David Attenborough’s shoes to host Blue Planet II — Live In Concert.

The TV personality, 40, below, will narrate the show as it tours the UK and Ireland next March, with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performing a score composed by Hans Zimmer, it was announced today.

The Countryfile presenter said she was both excited and nervous about the role. “No doubt I will be slightly anxious. But excited more than sheer terror. It makes the hairs on my un-waxed arms stand up just thinking about it.”

Rani said it was the “biggest honour” to be invited to narrate snippets of the Bafta-winning series to a live audience.

She started out on Channel 5’s The Edit and has since been on Cricket AM, The One Show, Country File, and Strictly Come Dancing in 2015.

She said she doesn’t fear for her career despite hitting 40 last year, insisting it is “a great moment to be a woman of a certain age in telly now”.

She said: “There has never been a better time to be woman in her 40s – you’ve hit your stride. You’ve earned your right to be there at the table. You’ve got gravitas and a bit of authority and you’ve grown in confidence.”

Rani said despite her background she never worried about not making it when she moved to London from Bradford to pursue a career in broadcasting.

“I’ve always been someone who is quite single-minded and never thought there were things that would hold me back even though I’m from Bradford and of Indian heritage,” she said.

“I’m one of those deluded optimists. You’ve got to have a healthy dose of realism, but I have to live my life thinking the best is yet to come. I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet.”

Blue Planet II — Live in Concert is at London O2 Arena on March 17.