ON HER OWN EVOLUTION

From devout creationist to presenter of the BBC's new Human series, paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi has been on a remarkable personal journey of change. She talks to KAREN ROCKETT about finding Charles Darwin, leaving her arranged marriage and the itchy downside of intrepid exploring

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FROM having to wear flea-infested trousers for filming continuity, to sleeping in a rat-filled hut and going to the toilet in a basket over the side of a ship, the travels of a TV explorer are often far from glamorous. But for Ella Al-Shamahi, presenter of the hugely popular BBC Two series Human, these discomforts pale into insignificance compared with the personal journey she has been on.

Human, which is back on our screens at 9pm tonight, traces the origins of how our species, homo sapiens, came into existence. So it’s incredible to believe that its presenter, a paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist, writer and stand-up comic, was once a staunch creationist who thought Charles Darwin had it all wrong.

Ella, who was a devout Muslim in an arranged marriage at the time, grew up in Birmingham with her Yemeni parents. When she turned seven, she insisted she start wearing a hijab against her mother’s wishes.

Her one-woman mission at university (she studied at University College London and Imperial) was to prove the evolutionists wrong. Becoming a missionary in her community at the age of 18, she had all the zeal and passion of youth but admits now that her creationist views, while deeply held, were ultimately wrong.

"I realise how bizarre it must seem that the person on TV explaining evolution, and where we as humans came from, actually believed in creationism and once set about trying to academically disprove evolution," she laughs. "But when you come from a community where that is what you are told all your life you believe it.

"It sounds ridiculous but I arrived at university having been told that evolution was a lie. I wanted to destroy the theory of evolution and prove scientifically that it must be wrong. Everybody in my community at that time thought the same, although it is different now."