World on film

Lindsay McCrae started watching birds in the Lake District as a young boy and he is now one of the most well-travelled wildlife cameramen in the business

- Suzanne Elsworth

When a film crew rescued a gang of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica by building them a snowy ramp to free them from a ravine, it created headlines around the world. Should they have intervened or let Mother Nature have her way?

Then TV icon David Attenborough backed their actions, saying he would have done the same, and the furore was put to rest. Quietly watching the debate – as he does everything in his working life – was one of the men wielding the spades in the snow. Cameraman Lindsay McCrae filmed Dynasties, the BBC series fronted by Attenborough.

‘We didn’t think twice,’ he says as he recalls the day of the rescue. ‘We were warned the media would pick it up but it was just another day for us.’

That day was part of a huge journey. He’s often away for weeks at a time, but this trip took his travels to another level. The 11-month stint at one of the ends of the earth meant he would miss the birth of his first child. It gave him a book deal – My Penguin Year was published last year and the paperback edition is out now. And he won a BAFTA for his work.

‘It’s in the downstairs loo!’ Lindsay says about the prize which was awarded in the Photography: Factual category.

‘I didn’t know I’d been nominated and I didn’t think I was going to win. It’s a bit different because normally these programmes get fronted by 10 people so it is rare to get it to yourself but because of the travelling to Antarctica, this was just me. It feels a bit over the top but this one has my name on it.’