All Creatures Great and Small star opens up about grief said he would ‘give anything for one hour’ with his famous parents
All Creatures Great and Small star would ‘give anything for one hour’ with his famous parents.
Samuel West has opened up on managing grief following the death of his mum and dad- the late Prunella Scales and Timothy West.
The actor has appeared in some of Britain’s most acclaimed television dramas and films but now, he’s taking on a completely different role – as himself. Alongside Adrian Edmondson, who is married to Jennifer Saunders, he is travelling through Cornwall, Norfolk and Somerset in search of some of the UK’s most stunning birds for a charming new Channel 5 series that premiered this week.
An exceptionally warm and personable actor, Samuel is remarkably thoughtful when he considers what his celebrated parents would have made of their son presenting a wildlife programme. “I think they would like it,” he told the Daily Express, sounding reflective. “I think it would chime to mum’s interests.
“She introduced me to the novel Swallows and Amazons and to big walks in the woods. The fact I spend a good amount of time in nature would please her. I also took my dad birding a few times and he was touchingly into it. We went out in Chichester and I told him I wanted to get this telescope for birding. I didn’t have it at the time and he bought it for me for my birthday.”
He breaks into a smile as he then cheerfully declares: “That’s when I properly got into bird watching – in my 40s!” Given that he believes his parents would have valued his new series, it seems especially fitting that birdwatching has proved so therapeutic as Samuel processes the devastating loss of his mother last October at the age of 93, and that of his father in November 2024 at the age of 90.
Poignantly, this Tuesday’s episode set in Norfolk was recorded just one week after Prunella passed away. Samuel was on the Isle of Scilly with his long-term partner, Laura, and their two daughters birdwatching when he received a call informing him of her death.
“I was on St Agnes,” he recalls. “I go there a lot birdwatching and our children were the most Westerly children in Britain at the moment their grandmother died.
“We were then filming this bird watching series in Norfolk a week later. But being there after my mum’s death was special. I never thought I wouldn’t do it as she always believed the show must go on. And she would have wanted me to film it. I didn’t know how I would feel but I was in a place doing something I loved with somebody (Ade) I knew would be sensitive and loving to the situation. It was a real comfort.”
He pauses, smiles and then confides: “We’d been in a church in Norfolk talking about death and parents and suddenly, some pink footed geese on their way to roost flew over the church. It was the most extraordinary moment. You couldn’t have planned it.”
He says birdwatching – Samuel is also an ambassador for the RSPB – has aided him in processing his grief. “There is something about getting out in the world that is not human and immersing yourself in it,” he says.
“It helps put your own personal problems into perspective. Even if it’s loss, you need to make a space for it where grief is liveable. You can’t ignore grief.”
He is tremendously grateful that both his parents were prominent public figures, meaning he will always have the ability to watch or listen to them. He explains: “The one thing that has surprised me is you think you know the meaning of the phrase ‘you will never see them again’, but then it suddenly hits you. I’d give anything for an hour with them now. You want to share things with them.
“But I am in a very privileged position. An awful lot of my mother and father’s work is available.”
Sam & Ade Go Birding will be available to stream on Channel 5
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