Ray Mears has has devoted himself to the wild life – living in and off the land and teaching others how to respect and enjoy nature.

So skilled is he at bushcraft that Northumbria police recruited him in to help track down on-the-run killer Raoul Moat in 2010.

For more than 20 years, his TV programmes have brought the great outdoors into our livingrooms, he has roughed it in - and – building a bed and fire, using bare branches, twigs and ingenuity and finding food from foraged scraps.

He returns to our screens this autumn with a new ITV series Australian Wilderness with Ray Mears - w hich sees him trekking through mountains and deserts, rainforests and ocean trip.

And he also takes to the road with a new stage show called BORN TO GO WILD, where he will offer a personal insight into his travels and survival techniques.

The 53-year-old stops off at The Sands Centre in Carlisle in November.

He admits, he doesn't come up to Cumbria very often –it's too crowded and he doesn't like getting recognised.

“ It is not a reflection on my feelings for the area. I love it very much,” he points out.

“ One of my favourite programmes was made up there when we filmed the wild peregrine falcons near Keswick.”

His memory of the trip during the series Wilderness Walks three years ago, remains sharp and clear.

He followed the Derwent River into the Borrowdale valley, to a peregrine falcon nest site.

When it was fashionable for rich people to own falcons, eggs were stolen from nests, but locals intervened to protect the birds.

Ray says: “ The nest si t e used to be robbed, but local people took it to their hearts and protected it, which is hearwarming.”

He is thrilled that the Lake District has been awarded World Heritage status - testament, he says, to the work done by those who live here.

But the new title may mean more crowds in the lanes and on the hills: “ That is great news and and it deserves it, but I hope it does not make life too difficult for people who live there,” he said.

“ World Heritage status is testimony to how well the people in the Lake D istrict have cared for the area.

“ I just hope whoever is in charge of that status realises that it has been very well managed for a very long time and allows that to continue.

“ I always worry about the extra levels of administration. Our national parks are different to others around the world because we have people living in them.

“ Commonsense says that there should be no change to how things are. The new title might make it easier to resist unsympathetic development in the area.

“ The thing I find most difficult in terms of crowds is the attitude of some peopl e in cars – they lose their temper because the lanes are narrow and they get stuff behind a tractor or slow-moving vehicle and their behaviour is just not appropriate.”

He agrees with George Monbiot that parts of Cumbria are overgrazed and have become what the controversial ecologist has branded a “sheepwrecked landscape”.

But he doesn't back calls for rewilding the area: “ When it comes to the shee p , I' m in complete agreement.

“ When you look at the grassland, it demonstrates overgrazing. People have to make a living but if you go to take it away, what do you replace it with?

“ If the trees were allowed to return, you would be surprised what species you got as a result.

“ The biodiversity would improve and what is good for wildlife is good for people.

“ But when it coes to the reintroduction of apex predators like the lynx, that is a whole new ballgame.

“ If you look at predators in other areas, like Yellowstone National Park, the wolves are back and it works because it is a massive wilderness area.

“ People are not trying to raise livestock.

“ How that would happen in the UK is completely different because they would prey on sheep and we would lose a few sheep.

“ Personally, I would love to see these things back in Britain, but I'm a realistand unless we all sign up to the idea that livestock will be killed, the result would be widespread hatred of that animal.

“ In Idaho they have introduced wolves and what you seen on the grou n d is massive hatred for that animal because they are taking livestock.

“ These are complicated issues and until we can learn to live with these animals and the hen harrier, we don't have the right to introduce any predator.

“ We have to find a way of accepting how we deal with these things.

“ When there is a need to control that animal, there is not a mechanism for even a dialogue, let alone the process, so they are controlled illegally and out of sight and there are no checks and controls on how it is done.

“ Conservationists and game keepers have to work together. I do see both views and I know that both, ultimately, love nature, but extremist views don't help.

“ The grouse moor is fantastic, but so is the sight of a hen harrier.”

Grouse, hen harriers and other rare British wildlife have featured in his programmes, along with more exotic creaturesd in more far-flung places.

His TV career started in 1994 with Wild Tracks Wild Tracks for the BBC. That was followed by the series Tracks from 1994 – 1997 and World of Survival between 1997 and 2002.

He worked for the BBC producing survival and bushcraft programmes until 2010 when he switched to ITV.

His latest series for them - Australian Wilderness with Ray Mears – will be broadcast this Autumn.

After his trip into the Australian outback, his extended roadtrip around the UK this autumn couldn't be a more different experience.

But it is one he is looking forward to - and he says the shows help him when it comes to making his TV programmes .

He said: “I'm deep in preparation for the tour. It is fun, though you have to negotiate the country's motorways.

“ I'm always surprised by the questions I get asked, children ask the most amazing questions.

“ It is great to meet the viewer and it is really important. Not enough TV executives have that opportunity.”

He's already planni ng his next journey into the world's wild areas, but is keeping details to himself for the moment.

He said: “The programmes are great fun to make, and it is real what we do.

“ We only have two days to shoot each episode so we worked out that every six hours twe have to find something and film it, which is very difficult.

“ We have given ourselves difficult things to find, but we achieve that.

“ There are things we are talking about, other places and other things with ITV, but I can't tell you.”

Ray Mears appears at The Sands Cente on November 3. For tickets and more information, call 01228 633766 or go to www.thesandscentre.co.uk