When did you develop a love of the outdoors?
From boyhood, really: I was befriending foxes when I was about five. It's almost as if nature chose me, you know? I read all the survival manuals, I camped in the garden and I even dropped out of the cubs because they didn't spend enough time in the woods!

Who has been the biggest influence on you?
My judo teacher at school. He was a real survivalist, having fought in WWII. He was the first to teach me to challenge convention, to follow my own path, and that knowledge is much more important than equipment.

How did you turn professional? Careers advisors don't tend to mention Survival Guru as an option...
Well, I never thought I could actually make any money from the bushcraft skills I'd taught myself since childhood. So I bit the bullet and took an office job in London in the early 80s. It was horrible and I quit soon after. Then, in 1983, I took a chance and set up Woodlore, my bushcraft school. It was a success, I started giving survival lessons to the British Army, and the BBC came calling after that.

You must have experienced a lot of scary stuff. Do you ever get frightened by the power of nature?
I've had malaria twice, I've faced grizzly bears, and there was a time I woke up in my hammock to see a huge crocodile padding past me. But I've never really been afraid, because death is nothing to fear. It's an inevitability, and you can't let the thought of death prevent you from exploring the world.

Did anything go wrong while making your TV shows or was it all smooth sailing?
Well, one thing always went wrong: the travelling. Not the bits in the jungle and so on, but the bits in between: the delays at the airport, the lugging of 21 boxes of equipment from van to plane to van. Trying to handle the logistics of a TV series can drive you up the wall.

Now Ray, be honest with us. Do you ever take a step back and think: I wish I was just a normal, conventional bloke?
No! It's just a fact of life that I find it perfectly normal to eat delicious grubs, or to find my lunch at the bottom of a pond. It's also a fact that I talk to trees, that I consider trees to be almost sentient creatures which are aware of our existence That's just who I am, and I'm proud of it. I'm proud that I spent 253 nights of one year sleeping outdoors. I just hope I can top it.