TV presenter Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek says an enthusiastic teacher in Oakham helped fuel her love for wildlife. Becky Jones finds out more.

A TV wildlife star from Rutland has thanked her old biology teacher for starting her on a career as a naturalist.

Former Oakham School pupil Dr Charlotte Uhlenbroek has become one of the world's best-known natural history presenters – she has a new series starting on Five, on Sunday.

And she says her enthusiasm was stoked at school by an enthusiastic teacher.

"I had a brilliant biology teacher there – Mr Davies. I loved biology anyway, but he really crystallised it for me and added to my enthusiasm. I'll always be very grateful to him", says Charlotte.

The TV naturalist moved with her family to North Luffenham in 1979, when she was in her early teens.

Recalling her time in Rutland, she says: "I loved it – we spent a lot of time at Rutland Water with our dog. It was an absolutely lovely place – where we lived we could just spill out into the fields. I've still got friends there and enjoy going back."

During her time at Oakham School, Charlotte became interested in animal behaviour and went on to do a degree in Zoology and Psychology, at the University of Bristol.

Following her degree, Charlotte spent four years in the forests of Gombe, Tanzania, studying the communication of wild chimpanzees for her PhD in Animal Communications, under the wing of pioneering chimpanzee expert, Jane Goodall.

"I look back at it as an incredibly special time for me, when I was in the most beautiful forest, right on Lake Tanganyika, which was my 700km bathtub. I swam in the lake every day and walked in the forest every day with the chimps."

Jane Goodall's work there meant Gombe became well known and was often visited by television crews. Charlotte helped out several crews and obviously made an impression.

On returning to Bristol to complete her PhD, she was contacted by National Geographic, who asked her to be scientific advisor on one of its films.

She also received a call from the BBC, which resulted in her first appearance on screen, in an episode of the Natural History Unit's Dawn to Dusk series which focussed on Gombe and its chimps.

"I was delighted to go back to Gombe – and be paid. For a PhD student it doesn't get better than that", she laughs.

Her talent identified, she went on to present BBC2's Chimpanzee Diary as part of the Animal Zone, in 1998 and 1999.

Since then, Charlotte has gone on to do a sizeable "bit of telly", including her first big BBC1 series Cousins, screened in 2000, where she introduced viewers to her extended primate family.

In 2001, she presented Congo's Secret Chimps for BBC2's Wild zone, and, in 2002, returned with the acclaimed Talking with Animals, a series that listened in on the communications of creatures as diverse as cuttlefish and wolves.

In her BBC1 series Jungle, Charlotte explored the world's rainforests and she also presented Final Chance to Save... Sea Turtles for Sky One and two specials for the BBC; Secret Gorillas of Mondika and Lemurs of Madagascar.

More recently, Charlotte presented a 20-part series for BBC2, Safari School, which was filmed at the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa.

Charlotte's next television appearance is in a four-part series for Five, Among the Apes, which begins on Sunday.

The programme was filmed last year, in three different southern hemisphere locations.

"We looked at four groups of primates. The idea was to get an intimate view of their society through getting to know the characters in their communities", explains Charlotte.

She travelled to Borneo to meet orangutans, to Uganda to find chimps and mountain gorillas, and to Tanzania for the baboons.

Having spent a large part of her career studying primates, she does admit to a particular fondness for them as they have "so many parallels with humans".

'The new David Attenborough' is a description which crops up often about Charlotte. So, how does she feel about being compared to the Leicester-educated TV great?

"He's a one-off – an absolute hero of mine, and while I think it's a huge compliment, I don't think anyone can fill his shoes. And, he's still making programmes and very active."

A longer version of this interview appears in the new-look Leicestershire and Rutland Life magazine, in the shops now. Get £1 off the magazine, with the voucher below.