Countryside pleasure; julia bradbury the big interview.

WHEN Julia Bradbury says she's been around the world, she means it.

She's recently finished filming three series of Five's Rough Guide travel programme back to back, visiting a whopping 40 countries.

While she lists South Africa and Costa Rica as among her favourite places, she also has a soft spot for dear old Blighty. And she reckons the Lake District is as beautiful as anything the rest of the world has to offer.

Julia has become an unofficial ambassador for the British countryside through her TV programmes.

She's one of the new presenters of BBC1's Countryfile and has also made three series of Wainwright Walks. The latest, Coast To Coast, is out on DVD next week and sees Julia walking from the Irish to the North Sea. In a 190- mile walk devised by Alfred Wainwright, Julia takes in the Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors.

Julia says: "I've been around the world for Rough Guides, but then I went back to the Lake District and just found it awe-inspiring.

"Standing on a Cumbrian mountain, gazing across the valleys below, is an experience on a par with any place I've been. It's just breathtaking.

"We take Britain's beauty for granted and overlook just how much it has to offer. I'm glad that more families are not going overseas this year, but are taking their holidays in Britain.

"And I'm absolutely thrilled by the response of Wainwright Walks, and that I've inspired people to walk. One guy turned his life around and lost three stone after thinking 'I could have a go at this'.

"I get touching letters from the elderly who can't walk any more, and from a five-year-old boy who makes all his family go on walks and calls his mum Julia and his dad Alfred!" Julia has presented her share of glamorous shows, interviewing stars like George Clooney, but she's not afraid to pull on a waterproof and go stomping through the mud. And she's not a late convert to the outdoors, either. She was just six when her father bought her first pair of hiking boots.

She remembers: "My dad is from Tideswell near Buxton in Derbyshire, and he took me walking in the Peak District.

"I'm still a keen walker, even in London. Walking is good for thinking, it's real cleansing stuff." Julia has a flat in West London but retreats to the Midlands countryside as often as she can - she owns a house in Rutland, England's smallest county, where she grew up.

"We always kept Rutland as a base, even when we moved to

Sheffield, where I went to secondary school. My parents have retired there and my sister and I have a house close by. We're very proud of the county and continued to call it Rutland even when it was part of Leicestershire.

"I come to Birmingham a lot because Countryfile is produced there, but I've worked there many times over the years.

"One of my very first jobs was actually for Countryfile, 15 years ago, on pig farming. There's a horrible clip of me with caterpillar eyebrows and big bushy hair.

"I also worked on the original

Top Gear out of Pebble Mill." Julia is back in Birmingham this week, representing Countryfile at the Gardeners' World Live show at the NEC. She is upbeat about being axed from BBC1's Watchdog in favour of Anne Robinson.

"If I didn't have any other work, I might feel differently. But it's been a good run of five years, the world of TV is fickle and you have to be very thick-skinned. We're talking about new projects and I can't grumble - though I am a fantastic complainer and love consumer journalism." Julia has also appeared Celebrity

MasterChef, Come Dine With Me and the singing show Just The Two Of Us, on which she was paired with Tony Christie.

"I found it a petrifying experience but I really got on with Tony, and go to visit him in Lichfield.

Once a week he texts me a silly joke." Three years ago, Julia, who's single, had surgery for endometriosis, a condition in which extra tissue grows outside the womb. It causes severe pelvic pain and can lead to infertility.

"I'm lucky, I had laser surgery and it's under control, so I can lead a normal life. Some women are bedridden.

"I don't know if it's affected my fertility, until I try properly for a baby. It is a worry. I've thought a lot about it, as I do want children.

It's something that's always there but, when the time is right, hopefully all will be well."

file fact NAME: Julia Bradbury AGE: 38 CV: Julia replaced Fiona Phillips as LA correspondent on GMTV, then was the first presenter on Channel 5 in 1997. Other TV credits include Watchdog, Are We Being Served? and Kill It, Cook It, Eat It.

FANCY THAT: Julia's more daring TV work has seen her fly with the Red Arrows and climb the 200-foot sheer rockface of Scotland's Old Man of Stoer..

CAPTION(S):

Julia Bradbury's presenting career has taken her around the world but she still loves the British countryside.