A former Strictly Come Dancing winner was left living in his car while homeless. Champion Hamza Yassin now lives an idyllic village life on the Ardamurchan Peninsula in Scotland's famously rugged West Coast.
But the BBC wildlife cameraman, who lifted the glitterball with Jowita Przystal in 2022, has revealed that prior to making a life for himself in his seaside cottage, he spent nine months secretly living out of the back of a seven-seater Vauxhall car.
Now aged 35, Hamza moved to the UK from Sudan with his parents when he was eight, settling in Northampton. After developing a keen interest in wildlife, he went on to study Zoology with Conservation, followed by wildlife photography, before heading to the Highlands and "falling in love with it".
"I was living in my Vauxhall seven-seater car for nine months when I first turned up," he told The Times. "Then I moved into a farmer's old caravan with no heating or running water, and then a caravan that did have water."
He went on to say the most difficult part of his experience was trying not to raise suspicions with the locals, so he would wake up at 8am and pretend he was hopping on a ferry to the nearby islands.
While coping without a fridge and shower, Hamza was earning money by doing odd jobs like mowing lawns, as well as offering his skills as a wedding photographer.
"All I needed was £50 a month," he continued, "In the meantime I was getting a good database of footage and sending it to producers at the BBC."
Hamza, who now lives in a cottage just 20 meters from the sea, has become a fan favourite on the BBC's Countryfile since first appearing as a guest presenter in 2021, the year before his Strictly Come Dancing victory.
Viewers recently witnessed him experience a "once in a lifetime experience" right on his Scottish Highland doorstep.
During the episode on Sunday, November 16, Hamza was on hand to assist with the release of three Scottish wildcats back into their natural habitat - making him the first non-project staff member to be involved in a release.
While driving into the woodland, Hamza told wildcat expert Estelle Morgan, "To actually get given the privilege of releasing three wild cats into the wild is something special."
"How cool was that?," he said after spotting a sleeping cat. "These guys are absolutely phenomenal. I can see why they are truly wildcats. They are majestic, they are beautiful, and they are so wild."