Channel 5 news presenter Dan Walker has scaled the perilous Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief and braved sparkly costumes and spray tans as a competitor on Strictly Come Dancing. But he had to face his two worst fears while filming alongside his long-time pal Helen Skelton for their new travel series Dan & Helen’s Pennine Adventure.

The journalist and TV presenter, 46, is “mildly terrified” of horses, following an incident when he was a sports reporter. “I nearly got eaten by a Grand National winner, when I used to cover the event for the BBC,” he says. “I’m exaggerating slightly – Mon Mome swiped for my neck when I shoved a mic under his stable hand’s mouth after the race.”

“So getting on a giant horse called Roger in North Yorkshire was a bit nerve-racking – but I loved it. By the end of it me and Roger were mates. I’m going to send him a Christmas card – in fact, I might sack off Helen and do Dan & Roger’s Pennine Adventure next time around.”

The new series has Dan and Helen exploring the Pennines from his home in Sheffield to her childhood home in Cumbria and meeting locals along the way. But it meant Dan had to beat his other fear – heights – when he had to abseil into a dark cave called the Alum Pot in the Yorkshire Dales.

“There was a point at which you have to walk back and just step off the edge of this little cliff into a 100-metre-deep cave. At one point I slipped and for half a second it felt like I was falling into the cave, which I’ll be honest with you was probably the worst half-second I’ve experienced in the last few years,” he says.

Co-presenter Helen was uncharacteristically anxious for the broadcaster as he made his descent. “To give you an idea of how scary it was, even Helen was worried and she doesn’t worry about anything,” he said.

The pair first met when she was a daredevil Blue Peter presenter and they were both working on the show’s Big Olympic Tour in 2012.

“In this industry, if you find somebody that you can trust and you really get on with, it makes a big difference,” he says of their decade-long friendship. “We’ve always wanted to work together, so to get the chance to do it on a programme like this about a place that we both care passionately about, the Pennines and the people there, it’s been great. And it was as much fun as I thought it would be working with Helen.”

As well as a shared love of the Pennines, Dan and Helen have something else in common – they both competed on Strictly, with Dan appearing in 2021 and Helen reaching the final in 2022 with her professional partner Gorka Márquez. So did Dan give Helen any advice before she put on her dancing shoes last year?

“Helen and I had some really honest conversations about what Strictly is like, what it’s like to be in that spotlight. I said, if it works, it will be amazing but it can be a very difficult experience. Thankfully she found it to be an amazing experience, and I think it helped her to get through last year as well,” he says, referring to her marriage split.

“As a really good friend of hers, watching the way that she danced with Gorka and the way that she developed – I still think she was robbed! Hamza [Yassin] and Jowita [Przystal] seem lovely but Helen, she’s the people’s champion.”

Helen and Dan have since become even closer friends thanks to their on-screen adventures. “We were living in each other’s pockets a bit – we did every form of travel, horseback, cycling, train, walking, car, canoe, and we’ve done all that together,” he says.

“It’s a good test of a relationship. But we’ve remained strong. I texted her this morning, and she sent me a nice message back, so we’re still mates!”

Dan & Helen's Pennine Adventure airs Tuesday 15th August at 9pm on Channel 5

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