Why I could never play Eve in the Garden of Eden

In my years at TV-am I had the most amazing opportunities to meet fascinating people and cover interesting features. My passion has always been wildlife, that’s how I got into television in the first place and I did a weekly slot called ‘Animal Watch’ covering all aspects of conservation etc.

I decided to do an item about the least loved animals, rats, scorpions, cockroaches, spiders and the most feared of all, snakes. I asked if I could borrow a large Boa Constrictor from London Zoo. By the way the lady from the Arachnid Society was called Ann Webb, you couldn’t make it up.

Normally I didn’t do any rehearsals, we just went live and that was it. However on this occasion I had to do a quick run through for the crew to show the cameraman how I would be holding each animal. All of the creatures behaved impeccably, well nearly all. A very young keeper brought the snake from the zoo and he was overawed by the studio. He was so engrossed in what was happening and the celebrities who were there in readiness for their appearance. The snake was in a draw string bag in a box, that is the normal way to transport them but the keeper was not exactly doing his job. He was so distracted he had deposited the snake container near a heat extractor. When I undid the draw string bag this enormous snake shot out jaws wide open and sunk its fangs into the top of my head.

If you have had any kind of injury in this area you will know it bleeds profusely. Fortunately there is not much flesh to penetrate so I could twist the head and get it out of my hair. Holding the writhing snake behind its head I looked around for help. This became know who your friends are time. I was alone! Grown men had fled. I managed to put the snakes head back into the draw string bag and then they came and helped to coil the rest of the body into it. It was taken to a cold area.

It was twenty minutes to air and I dashed into make up looking like a traffic accident. My hair looked like Cruella de Ville’s with almost black areas of blood soaked strands. Wardrobe got me a change of clothing and a makeup lady washed the front of my hair and rapidly refreshed my makeup. No time for anything else, I was on.

I did the whole programme as if I was wearing a neck collar. I couldn’t turn my head or the blood soaked rest of it would show. I just pointed in a vague direction at the weather map. The animal slot went without a hitch. The tarantula handling sent a ripple through the studio; fortunately I have never feared spiders.

A couple of weeks later I was booked to give a talk at the zoo. They were having a pet week and I was asked to talk about terrapins. I had kept them for years and had huge ones. It was those that were part of my first ever television appearance, which led to everything else. After I had done my bit I popped into the reptile house to see the curator David Ball. I asked if I could handle the snake again as I didn’t want to be left with a residual fear of snakes. He said “I’m sorry Wincey but the snake is dead”. It had obviously suffered far more stress than was realised. I was devastated.

Imagine how long it was before all the jokes about snake bites Wincey and dies came to an end. Someone on Twitter asked recently, “What is the most unusual scar you have?” I think I might win if it was a competition.

Wincey Willis May 2011