Somerset, May 2004: Nigel and Gill enjoy meeting an unexpected visitor to their wedding reception.
It was hardly surprising that some animals decided to make guest appearances at Nigel and Gill’s wedding; the ring-bearer was a blue-tongued skink and a monitor lizard was seen padding through the champagne reception. However, when this snake appeared, it was the undoubted highlight! Fortunately Gill is just as enamoured with reptiles as Nigel is, and the snake was warmly welcomed to the party


Missouri, 1978: Nigel proudly shows off a captured turtle.
Spending time in the Ozark mountains of Missouri as a skinny 18-year old on a gap year before university, Nigel was helping Professor Max Nickerson with a tagging study of these reptiles. The turtles were marked and released- later recapture allowed Nigel to work out the local movements of these intriguing animals.


Corfu 1986: Old Plop, terrapin star of My Family and Other Animals.
As director in charge of natural history sequences, Nigel had to coordinate the filming of literally hundreds of animals for the BBC’s drama adaptation of Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals. Old Plop was one of the more famous animal characters!


Mediterranean, 1984: Nigel in discussion with Sir David Attenborough
Working on Sir David’s BBC series about the Mediterranean, First Eden, Nigel is pictures during filming of a sequence involving a venomous Montpelier snake. Travelling with David was a dream come true for Nigel, who had long regarded him as a true wildlife hero.


Arizona, May 2004: The Image Impact team filming for Venom Hunters.
Filming for Venom and Animal Detectives took the Image Impact crew across twelve US states in one mammoth eight-week shoot throughout the summer of 2004. At this point they’re somewhere near the Arizona/New Mexico border, only one week into the shoot and still fairly fresh, despite the mercury pushing 100 degrees throughout the day. Nigel is carefully holding one of only two venomous lizards in the world, the Gila monster. He’s interviewing scientist Jon Eng about his work to develop a drug from the Gila monster venom that could treat diabetes- it’s fascinating and inspiring stuff. The rest of the crew are concentrating very hard, maintaining a steady shot, keeping the microphone out of the picture and aiming a reflector to bounce light into the shadows. They’re also wondering whether they remembered to bring enough cold drinks to last the day…


USA, September 2003: On the set of Animal Planet’s King of the Jungle
Nigel, Stan Brock and Doc Antle get to grips with one of the reptilian stars of Animal Planet’s King of the Jungle series.