Birdman

Julian Hector (Bedford Modern School, BSc  and Ph D Zoology, Bristol) is to run the BBC's Natural History Unit, as part of the all-new-soon-to-be-a-limited-company BBC Studios.

After university, he was part of a British Antartic Survey team studying albatrosses on South Georgia. Argentine forces masquerading as scrap metal clearers took over the abandoned whaling station, and the skirmishes that followed were the pre-cursor to the Falkands War. It lasted around four weeks, leaving the four-man scientific team undeterred but effectively stranded on Bird Island, with food supplies dwindling to a 45 gallon drum of dried cabbage left by previous expeditions. Rescue came in the form of the Royal Navy.

He joined the BBC first in the radio wing of the NHU in 1993, and is the driving force behind Tweet of The Day. His partner Mary specialises in curlews.