Jeremy Wade Interview

Originally published on BestBritishTV.com in 2012

Jeremy Wade is the host of the wildly popular show River Monsters which is produced by Icon Films for Animal Planet. The production crew are currently working on the fourth season of the program but during a break in filming, Jeremy took time out to answer some questions about his work and the show.

You studied Zoology at University of Bristol. Was it studying for your degree that lead to your interest in fishing and the development of your show?

“It was actually my interest in fishing that prompted me to do the Zoology degree although I really wanted to go to Art college but that fell through. I turned to Zoology because I thought that it would be a good way to combine my interest in fishing with work. However, it did not go as I had planned because the degree was largely theory based. I then did a teaching degree but I found that you could not really operate as I wanted to within the school system but my teaching and the time that I later spent working in advertising actually help me now with my current work. When you work in advertising you have to try and get people interested in new things and in a sense that is what I have to do on the show.”

On River Monsters, each episode focuses on one particular fish. Aside from researching the fish, how do you go about researching the location where you hope to find it?

“During the first two seasons of the show we went to a number of locations that I had been to in the past as an independent traveler. I was able to rely on a lot of the research that I had done over the course of the last 25 years and I also had a lot of contacts from my previous trips. We are now filming season four so now we try to find out stories about fish either online or in publications. After that, it is a matter of making contact with someone based in the area in question. We try to find out if the stories are credible and we have some researchers who help during this process. By the time we go to a location, we have a good idea about what we should expect to find but you never know what will happen when you are working with animals. Sometimes we find the fish fairly quickly and on other occasions it can take a long time in which case the viewers can sense the air of desperation as the show progresses.

Some of the fish can be quite dangerous but obviously some of the locations are also hazardous so we have to make careful preparations. Normally, myself and some of the crew members receive some training in how to deal with emergencies when you are in isolated locations and cannot rely on calling an ambulance or a medical team. The emphasis is on trying to avoid danger rather than dealing with the consequences because we have to show our insurers that we have taken steps to minimize the risks while at the same time making a show exposes you to real hazards.”

During some of the episodes we have seen you having to contend with dangers such as crocodiles, hippos and even bandits. Have there been any fish that you wanted to find but you decided that the location was just too dangerous?

“There haven't been any locations that we have decided not to go to but there have been some that we had to think long and hard about. We went to the Congo a couple of times and we had to give that some careful consideration. You also run into safety issues when you are actually filming the show.

We filmed an episode in South Africa and we found that the bull sharks there were not as dangerous as many people think just as long as you leave them alone. To prove the point we thought about filming a scene where I would swim across the river past the sharks and it was about 99 percent certain that I would make it safely across. However, even though the risk was minimal, the consequences of something going wrong were severe so we decided not to do that. We do risk assessments before we go on location but we also have to do risk assessments while we are filming as we encounter different situations.”

What was your most exciting fish encounter?

“It is difficult to choose one encounter but I think I would have to choose catching the tiger fish in the Congo. I first went to the Congo on the Zaire side in 1985 and I was there for two months but didn't catch anything and I went again in 1990 and didn't catch anything. I did catch a medium sized one there in 1991 but it was a big gamble to take a film crew there in 2010 in the hope of catching one on film. I did end up catching a big one that weighed 80 lbs. That is probably my favorite encounter because after 25 years of trying I finally caught a big tiger fish in front of a film crew.”

What was your scariest trip either in terms of the fish, the locals or the environment?

“One experience that sticks in my mind is the electric eel in the Amazon. You can tell that most fish are dangerous just by looking at them because of their size or their teeth. The electric eel has tiny teeth and it has very little muscle compared with most types of eels because most of its energy has been converted to the electricity generating organ. One touch could knock you on your back or leave you unconscious. People have been killed by these eels in shallow water because they were shocked, fell face down and drowned. The thought of a creature that can generate electricity and that lives in the water is very scary.”

Why do you think the show has been so popular?

“We always intended to try and draw in a wide audience but one thing that has been quite gratifying is the fact that we have been able to interest a lot of children in the show. I think children like it because it is quite scary. Most people have never seen these kind of animals and some of them are like dinosaurs or the Loch Ness monster. Other nature shows have not really shown these fish because river water is too murky to film them which is why we film it from the fishing angle so you can see these creatures. Each episode is a bit like a fairytale or a mystery because it begins with a scary story but then you find that the animals are not so scary and that they don't intend to hurt people. When you see it, you understand it and then you are not afraid of it any more. I think that is why children like it.”

As a viewer of the show I am amazed that so many types of large fish still exist close to human populations.

“Actually, in doing my research for the show I have found that most types of big fish have disappeared from rivers around the world. We look into a lot of stories about past sightings of fish only to find that they no longer exist. The rivers that still have these fish are in the minority. I think that because we catch a fish in each episode that it can give the false impression that there are more of these fish than there really are. At the same time I am pleased that I have had a lot of feedback saying that the show has re-awakened people's interest in fishing. A lot of viewers, especially in the USA have contacted me to say that they have started fishing for bass and other fish after watching the show.

You are currently filming season four of the show. How are things coming along?

“We are about halfway through filming season four. It usually takes two weeks to film an episode so we should finish filming the series in November. Season four should air some time in Spring 2012.”