14 SCOTSMAN.COM @Thescotsman THE SCOTSMAN Tuesday 16 April 2019 THE SCOTSMAN Tuesday 16 April 2019 SCOTSMAN.COM @Thescotsman 15 THEFeat SCOTSMANures 200 ‘It’s only when a change starts that you realise how unbalanced it was’ Women are finally getting bigger roles on television, Angela Scanlon, host of new makeover show Your Home Made Perfect, tells Gemma Dunn ngela Scanlon is having quite the Amoment. Whether it’s fronting her own documentary series, standing in for Alex Jones on The One Show, co-hosting cult hit Robot Wars with Dara O’Briain – or even landing her own BBC Radio 2 slot, the one- time journalist has proved she’s got what it takes to make it to the top of the TV ladder. And her latest appointment as the presenter of BBC 2’s brand new offering, Your Home Made Perfect, continues to demonstrate it. 00Angela Scanlon: ‘We all have that tendency to be a bit nosy’ A property makeover series like no other, the show offers On... the virtual reality gonna sack me?’ But no, it’s up cutting-edge virtual reality concept great, and I feel really lucky You work a lot in Africa. Is You always need to be ready scape’ in your wildlife pic- and visual effects to enable “The designers create a that I get to do these kinds of there a particular country you in wildlife photography. Life tures? people to see what their future virtual reality (VR) using shows. I’m quite conscious to feel attached to? moves pretty fast, and you don’t It can be very important. home could look like, before visual effect or photo real do things that I feel passionate ‘One outstanding There are several. get a second chance to capture Sometimes, photographers building it in reality. effects. Sometimes it can take about, and that’s for selfish Uganda’s very under-rated. a moment that passes. concentrate only on getting In each episode, a family up to three months to make reasons, but also my face Makgadikgadi Pans in Ultimately, it comes down the animal in their frame. will be presented with two these models, in consultation doesn’t lie. But even with The Botswana is really interesting to being creative. You have to Setting an animal in its radically different designs by with the architects [Laura and One Show and Radio 2, it’s just for desert-adapted species, keep pushing yourself. environment tells a different architects Laura Jane Clark Robert], and then the home- been so lovely and I’m having like meerkats and ostriches. story. In The Falkland Islands and Robert Jamison. It’s then owners put on the VR goggles a ball.” shot is worth Kenya’s Masai Mara Is there a particular animal a while back, I was on a beach up to them, the home-owners, and get to explore their newly conservancies, outside the you like to photograph that around Volunteer Point and which ambitious renovation imagined home. They then On... being a new mother main National Reserves, are falls outside regular ideas of photographed a cluster of idea they choose. decide whether they want “[Ruby] will be one next doing great work to protect the beauty? penguins, positioning them in “The VR aspect of it just to go with Laura’s or with month and it’s bonkers, it’s animals, including big cats. Plenty. I enjoy photographing the corner of the frame, facing makes it feel so fresh and new Robert’s design.” life-changing, it’s game- I was recently in Ruaha lions, gorillas and other big an incoming storm. It made and different – and I love that,” changing, it’s exhausting, more than National Park, a massive exciting animals. But smaller for a very different photo than says Scanlon, 35. On... the home-owners’ it’s overwhelming and it’s wilderness area in Tanzania, and stranger creatures are just just focusing on a group of “But also what’s important is experience magical. So quite a heady mix. which is far less known than as fascinating, especially as penguins. at the moment tech is getting “I suppose on a practical I mean everyone talks about the Serengeti or Ngorongoro. they’re often less familiar to an absolute hammering,” level what the [VR] does is getting the balance right, so The wildlife there is people. What role do you think wild- notes the Irish star. “We’re allows the couples to really I don’t know if I still manage 1,000 hurried, phenomenal. I was working on Langkawi life photography can play in a down on social media for experience it and, as a result, that or if it’s just an endless I’m always happy to go back recently, an island off the coast world that often disrespects ruining our lives and [the fact] they can be so much braver thing that you try to do and to work in Africa, and there’s of Malaysia, and spent time or destroys nature? AI and robots are taking our and bolder with the choices you play around with, but plenty of the continent that I photographing tiny frogs, Threats to wildlife and jobs, so I think the idea that that they make. To wrap she’s great and she’s cool and Have you had any close Do you have a favourite type haven’t explored yet. which was really satisfying. ecosystems often feel very you can use technology in a your head around how she’s got a filthy little laugh.” encounters with animals of environment to work in? One of my favourite distant and remote. I think really positive way is a good something will look on paper thoughtless snaps’ you’ve photographed? No, I’m excited to be out in all What makes the difference photographs is of a blue- wildlife photography can thing.” is very difficult and probably On... the changing role of I had a silverback mountain kinds of terrain, from deserts between an OK wildlife photo eyed angle-headed lizard in get people’s attention and Of her passion for property, prohibits us from taking women in TV gorilla thunder past me in to mountains to jungle. One and an outstanding one? Gunung Mulu National Park hopefully make them care she adds: “I spend a lot of time risks.” “It’s only when a change the mountains of Uganda. of the greatest pleasures of Time. A photo where you’ve in Sarawak. I was there a few and get involved. Too many peering creepily through the starts that you realise just Wildlife photographer Graeme Green talks to Thresher sharks have swum wildlife photography is getting really taken your time, given years ago to photograph the animals face extinction or windows of estate agents, so On... future series how unbalanced it was, Andrea Moreno about close encounters, favourite right over my head. In Zambia, to explore new places and find some thought to what you ‘bat exodus’, where thousands threats like poaching or loss it’s something that’s a massive “You just never know. We all so it’s brilliant that that’s lions came pretty close, though out what’s there. Anytime I’m want to achieve and put some of bats leave the caves each of habitat. We’ve all become interest to me.” have that tendency to be a bit being addressed and that it’s locations and the power of a picture they were more focused on a out in nature with a camera, work into it usually looks a evening to feed on insects. On too good at flicking past or So, what else do we need to nosy and want to rummage changing. When you look few warthogs nearby. Most I’m pretty happy. lot better than something the way there, I spotted the ignoring urgent stories that know? around people’s homes, so across TV, a lot of the bigger animals aren’t that interested That said, it’s hard to that took a second to click. lizard on a tree, the kind of we should pay attention to. you can be totally voyeuristic shows are fronted by women in attacking humans, of course. Clockwise from top left: a beat Antarctica. I also like Sometimes you have to wait thing many people might not Without photography, I think On... how the show works but then you can be in three now; and radio, with Zoe The closest call I’ve had was leopard and impala, Ruaha the winter wildlife up in for the right light, the right have noticed or walked by or we’d find people cared less “We have a couple of home homes at once, which is and Sara [on Radio 2]. Now in Cambodia’s Cardamom National Park, Tanzania; grey Hokkaido, in northern Japan. moment, or you need to shift not bothered to photograph. about the natural world. It’s owners per show and they nice. Property and interior the next thing that needs to mountains. I was talking to a heron, Scotland; a mountain I’ve had good photographic your position. One outstanding But I spent quite a bit of a powerful reminder of what hate their house – or a part of shows tend to be popular happen is for a woman to have few local guys when a huge gorilla in Bwindi Impenetrable experiences over the years in shot is worth more than 1,000 time with it, moving closer, we’ve got to lose. their house – and there’s quite and this just feels like a fresh a big, fat, prime-time chat black cobra slithered right past Forest, Uganda; a lilac- Malaysia.