Chris Packham recalls undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome on TV walk

Chris Packham walked along the River Itchen and Itchen Navigation between Southampton and Winchester

Chris Packham has said he hopes discussing his childhood living with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome will help other isolated young people.

The TV naturalist appears in The Walk That Made Me, filmed in the Hampshire countryside with a hand-held camera.

He recalls walking the route as a boy and how the natural world helped him overcome isolation and depression.

Packham, diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in his 20s, said he was "lucky to get through that period of my life".

On his journey from outside Southampton to Winchester Cathedral, the Springwatch presenter reflects on how the route along the River Itchen and Itchen Navigation forged his love for nature and "shaped and probably saved my life".

Packham, 60, who grew up in Southampton, said he had not intended to speak so openly about his memories of living with undiagnosed Asperger's syndrome and experiencing suicidal thoughts.

"I absolutely loathe the idea that as that programme goes out, there will be teenagers in their bedroom reading Baudelaire and getting really depressed and not seeing a tunnel, let alone the light at the end of it," he said.

'Better understand'

He said the recollections of his own childhood "just flowed out".

"I read about people who were taking their lives after exposure to things on social media. I could have done that," he said.

"I came so close to doing that and yet in the aftermath my life has been incredibly fulfilled.

"So I want to have conversations to get people thinking so that they better understand it, and can offer help to those people that are bound to be in the same position that I was in."

Chris Packham: The Walk That Made Me is on BBC Two at 8pm on July 28 and on BBC iPlayer.