Journeys in the Wild: The Secret Life of a Cameraman

Gavin Thurston (born 1962) is a BAFTA and EMMY award winning cameraman specialising in wildlife. He has worked on 17 of Sir David Attenborough's series and has travelled and filmed on all seven continents and at both North and South poles. Recently, whilst filming for 'Blue Planet 2' he was in the submersible that set the world record for deepest dive in Antarctica. Gavin attended King's School Gloucester having won a choral scholarship at Gloucester Cathedral. As a frustrated artist, he taught himself photography to fulfil that want. On the day he left school, armed with his black and white portfolio, he landed a job with Oxford Scientific Films. This is where his passion for the photographic image merged with his fascination for the natural world. His job provides a variety of experiences from filming the space shuttle launch for 'Rocketships' a documentary for The Discovery Channel to working with a remote Korowai tribe in Papua New Guinea for 'Human Planet'. He once had the lens hood bitten off his camera by a Siberian tiger and survived crashing a Land Rover in remote Russia whilst filming for BBC's 'Realms of the Russian Bear'. Not to mention surviving a plane crash on a dirt strip in Gabon delivering some orphaned Gorillas back to the wild. He has stood down charging elephants and a lion as well as very close encounters with a grizzly bear mum with cubs and wild wolves. And whilst filming for a BBC special on Gorillas, he was slapped by a silverback. Gavin has won numerous awards including a Royal Humane Society Award for Bravery (1984), 5 EMMYs and 3 BAFTAs for cinematography. Gavin is married to Maggie and has two sons, Thomas and Harry.