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Lockdown has given Helen Skelton a new ‘love and respect’ for TV technicians

TV presenter Helen Skelton says she has a new found love and respect for broadcast technicians as she has struggled to master her equipment while filming from home in the lockdown.

The former Blue Peter and Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins star said she has continued to work throughout the pandemic, with sometimes chaotic results involving her children popping up on a range of TV and radio shows.

She said: “I am the most untechnical person ever but, like everyone in lockdown, we’ve been doing things in a different way.

“I’ve been making telly right through, filming in my garden, filming on phones, filming on various bits and bobs.

“I have a new found love and respect for my soundmen friends and my cameramen friends because they make it look easy and it ain’t.”

Skelton said: “It’s given people a respect for working parents because the juggling is real.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park expanded animal reserves
Countryfile presenter Helen Skelton feeds a red panda during a visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park (Danny Lawson/PA)

“And I don’t think working from home is as easy as people think it is.

“You think you can do all your work in your pyjamas but you can’t. Your head can’t be in seven places at once.”

Skelton was speaking as she returned to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park (YWP), in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, to for a preview of phase one of the attraction’s expanded animal reserves before they opened to visitors on Tuesday.

The presenter knows YWP well from hosting Channel 5’s Big Week at the Zoo.

Phase one of YWP’s expansion includes Experience Ethiopia, with its two reserves: Hyenas of Harar and Simien Mountains, with its troop of gelada monkeys.

Yorkshire Wildlife Park expanded animal reserves
Red pandas at one of the Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s expanded animal reserves, Himalayan Pass (Danny Lawson/PA)

There is also the Himalayan Pass, which features red pandas and smooth coated otters.

Skelton said: “What I love about this place is that it’s very much a park.

“I loved wandering around. You feel spaced out. You feel like the animals are enjoying themselves.

“For me, this is a golden opportunity to say to my kids ‘this is why I nag you to recycle, this is why I nag you to protect the planet, this is why I want you to care about animals.

“It’s a real showcase of why we should be protecting the planet.”