Tales from the Riverbank: Clare Balding goes on a series of walks and tells the stories of Britain’s most iconic rivers

​As one of Britain’s best-loved TV presenters, Clare Balding now appears to be a fortunate position where she can pick and choose her next project.

The former amateur flat jockey is a massive sports fan and she has covered everything from Wimbledon, the Olympics and rugby league, to the Boat Race, the Grand National and BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

She has also played a part in hosting big state occasions, such as the Coronation, jubilees, royal weddings and Trooping the Colour, and is an animal lover, presenting Crufts and Channel 5’s Live: Lost Dogs With Clare Balding.

One of her other passions is the Great British outdoors, as she has shown in her popular Radio 4 series Ramblings.

Tales from the Riverbank, which began on Channel 5 last week, is somewhat of an extension of that programme, as the 54-year-old goes on a series of walks and tells the stories of Britain’s most iconic rivers.

“There is something truly magical about life on the water,” she says. “I can’t think of a better way to spend my summer than telling tales from the riverbank.”

In tonight’s second episode, Clare takes on the River Dart, which stretches for nearly 50 miles from the south coast of Devon to the untouched craggy Dartmoor.

“It felt so remote,” she says about the area. “That’s where I was in awe of a relatively small river and the power that it has. It was beautiful, haunting and entrancing.”

Immediately taking to the water, Clare joins seafood restaurateur Mitch Tonks for a tour of the Dart estuary by boat, before sampling a crab sandwich.

Heading upstream, Clare passes the grand Britannia Royal Naval College, where Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip first fell in love over a game of croquet.

Clare’s next stop is Dittisham, where she tries her hand at crabbing before ringing the bell to summon the ferryman to take her across to Greenway Estate.

This was Agatha Christie’s idyllic getaway, and Clare is joined by expert Laura Thompson, who discusses how important the Dart was to the Queen of Crime.

Like most great vineyard regions around the world, Sandridge Barton – the home of Sharpham Wines – is situated on a river.

Meeting head winemaker, Duncan Schwab, Clare learns how the Dart is vital to the production of their award-winning varieties, which Clare gets to taste along with some locally made cheese.

Journeying past the tidal Dart, Clare enjoys a cream tea the Devonshire way as she travels along South Devon Railway’s riverside route.

Then, swapping out clotted cream for cute critters, the host makes her way to the local otter sanctuary for feeding time.

At the gateway of Dartmoor lies Buckfast Abbey, where the monks there have been custodians of the land and river for centuries, and a newly installed state-of-the-art fish pass is hopefully going to boost the Dart’s salmon numbers.

If there was one way Clare would choose to end her dynamic Dart adventure it would probably be a wildlife walk.

And that’s exactly what she does, as she reaches the river’s source, surrounded by some of Britain’s most ancient and magical woodland.