Colin Stafford-Johnson is a Wildlife Cameraman, Television Presenter, Film maker and now a TV Gardener.
He was born in 1964 in Cabinteely near Dublin in Ireland to parents Barney and Dorothy Johnson and had 5 brothers and sisters.
His father was the first Television Gardener Barney Johnson presenter of RTE Television's (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) gardening programme 'The Garden', 'which was first broadcast in 1977 in The Republic of Ireland.
The family owned a Garden Centre so he was brought up surrounded by plants and the outdoors but his real passion was for wildlife.
At the age of 4 Colin was fascinated by birds and catching butterflies and this early fascination has lead to a life time of wildlife watching.
His father sadly died when he was just 15 years old.
Colin left Ireland and travelled before doing a degree in biological imaging in Derby, England. It was a biology degree mixed with training to be a cameraman and wildlife film producer.
A career for this Emmy award winning Cameraman started in India filming Tigers, and Tigers have been a passion ever since.
He won his Emmy in 2006 for cinematography on the film Mississippi — Tales of the Last River Rat.
Countless awards have followed like the Grand Teton award and the WWF Golden Panda award with filming taken place in the UK as well as all over the world.
Colin Wildlife programmes spanning 30 years are too many to mention with many in his native Ireland from the Secret Life of the Shannon; Wild Ireland, Edge of the World; Living the Wildlife, Wild Ireland, Wild Cuba: A Caribbean Journey and Animal Babies: First Year on Earth.
In 2021 Colin's outstanding programme The Wild Gardener saw him take to the screen as a 'TV Gardener' as well as including his amazing footage of wildlife.
Colin returned to his childhood home to turn some land into a wildlife haven, as we follow him over 2 years and the ups and downs of creating this.
Colin visits other wildlife enthusiasts all across Ireland and Great Britain to see what they are doing to preserve and encourage wildlife into their gardens.
He also visits the historic former home of the original wild gardener William Robinson at Gravetye Manor in Sussex to see the garden he created in 1885.
Whether you have a whole garden or just a patch of wilderness Colin inspires us all to help attract as much wildlife as we can to our gardens with this beautifully filmed series and a touching insight into the story behind the camera.
Colin Stafford-Johnson has 4 children.
2021
Thank you for your two part wild gardener programme, I really enjoyed your story, your wild garden is a beautiful natural growing garden , if I had a garden mine would be wild as well as wild is natures beauty in all seasons, well done.
ReplyDeleteWell said, sir.
ReplyDeleteFantastic programmes Colin. Any chance of future updates? Would be wonderful to follow the garden's progress over the next few years.
ReplyDelete