Monty Halls talks Great Escapes

Monty Halls is a marine biologist and professional diver who first came to the attention of the British Public in Monty Halls’ Great Escape where he spent six months with a former rescue dog Reuben living the life of a 21st century beachcomber. The second series, set in the Outer Hebrides, saw him resurrecting the wildlife ranger post that disappeared six years previously due to a lack of funding. The third series, starting tonight, sees Monty setting up digs off the rugged west coast of Ireland.

Your new series, Monty Halls’ Great Irish Escape, starts tonight. What was your goal this time?

It was returning to my roots as a marine biologist, really, and working with an organisation called the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group. The coast of Connemara has been very little studied, really, in term of its whales and dolphin activity, so it was an opportunity to do that for six months.

The press release says the show will feature an ‘explosive autopsy of a beached whale’. I’ve got to ask – what does an explosive autopsy of a beached whale involve?

(With a hint of sarcasm) That was a lot of fun! Basically whales decompose from the inside – they wash up and die, then rot from the inside out. I went down to the beach and did a whale autopsy. I did it with the head of the Irish Whale and Dolphin group who is a real expert at doing them and he insisted that I cut it open – for reasons that very swiftly became apparent!

It just kind of exploded. Blubber didn’t fly up 400 metres or anything, but it was horrid – fetid, decomposing entrails everywhere. It was like a mortar going off. There was this real ‘bam!’ when I cut into it.

It’s in the first episode. Worth waiting up for!

So the series starts with a bang?

(Laughs) Literally!