A friend once asked me what qualities were needed for SAS. I would say to be self-motivated and resilient; to be calm, yet have the ability to smile when it is grim; to be unflappable, be able to react fast and to have an ‘improvise, adapt and overcome’ mentality.

When I'm filming, survival requires movement. You need your energy, and you've got to eat the bad stuff, and survival food is rarely pretty, but you kind of do it. I get in that zone, and I eat the nasty stuff, but I'm not like that when I'm back home.

My Christian faith is my backbone

When I'm in 'Man vs. Wild' mode, it's not pleasure. Every sensor is firing and I'm on reserve power all the time and I'm digging deep - and that's the magic of it as well, and that's raw and it's great.

I never wanted to do TV. I just did what I was trained to do through the Special Forces, and I've been doing that from a very young age.

Christianity is not about religion. It's about faith, about being held, about being forgiven. It's about finding joy and finding home.

A wise man knows; learn from others, never get complacent and know where the classic old dangers come from.