After having cancer, every minute is a gift

As Springwatch presenter Michaela Strachan reflects on four decades in broadcasting, she talks pushing boundaries, learning to let go and the secret to a successful relationship

- By Alison James

THE FIRST question I ask the eversmiling Michaela Strachan as I interview her over Zoom is, who painted the portrait in her attic? I'm referring to Oscar Wilde's ever youthful character Dorian Gray, who ceases to age while a portrait in his attic takes on the task.

It wasn't a question I was intending to pose but, apart from a few laughter lines around the eyes, Strachan barely seems to have aged since her Hitman and Her days the trashtastic, late-night TV music show she hosted with music mogul Pete Waterman from 1988 to '92. Yet she's almost 60! She laughs.

"What? Look at my sleepy right eye. And I've got wrinkles. But, yes, people tell me all the time that I look the same as I did in the Eighties when I presented Wide Awake Club with Timmy Mallet. I've got good genes." It's more than that, though. I reckon it's also about attitude and the way you look at life. Michaela agrees.

"I may be almost 60 but I'll always be 35 in my head," she says. "You've got to think like a younger person and keep on moving on - especially as life changes. Whether that be through your kids leaving the nest and feeling like life has lost some of its purpose, feeling a bit lonely or like you've lost your way.

"As women, I think we feel these changes particularly keenly." She has clear advice on how to do this.

"Challenge yourself, look for new stuff to do, meet new people, get involved in a new community, make new friends, take risks," she says. "I adored doing Dancing on Ice earlier this year, for instance [when she was partnered with Mark Hanretty), because it was all about pushing myself and doing something completely new and a bit scary. It gave me an enormous amount of joy and a real boost of energy." It also gave her a leg injury that took several months to heal. She laughs again - more ruefully this time. "The injury taught me that physically I'm not 35, even if I think I am.