He was amazing - he could land a plane sideways, hit trees and all that.' Were you scared? 'It was terrifying to begin with but by the second take I really started to enjoy it. He's a dead ringer for Iggy Pop and CC stands for Captain Crash! He's a genius, lunatic pilot and provided us with footage that's taken my breath away. So when we have to beat a hasty retreat out of Zimbabwe she has to fly a plane with an anesthetised cheetah waking up in the back!' Was it difficult to film? 'We interviewed lots of pilots who, when we told them what we wanted to do, they were health and safety up the ying yang! Then we discovered CC.

Rosie is engaged to a pilot called Dylan, who has given her a few lessons. Meanwhile, Danny, Rosie and Dup fly off to Zimbabwe on a rescue mission.' It sounds exciting! 'We've got some incredible aerial footage. She and Caroline look after Leopard's Den and try to get to the bottom of who is responsible for taking the animals. I never read that book about not working with children and animals!' In terms of the final story, what can you tell us? 'Some of our animals are poached so Dawn and I split camps. People are making resolutions - and breaking them immediately! Alice and I have our little boy, Bobby - the young actor added his own dialogue in those scenes, and we've kept them. We were all together again for the final and that was beautifully moving.' How are things with the family when we catch up with them? 'It's about eighteen months later and it's New Year's Eve. We never dropped below seven million viewers in the eight years and we're all incredibly proud of that - cast and crew. We weren't desperately thinking we could go again if we dropped a hint! We had all accepted the fact this was it and wanted to give it a good send off. It's full of things we haven't done before and is a proper ending.' How do you feel about the ending? 'It's a natural conclusion, I think. Maybe I'll hang around zoos to get my fix! It's great that we got to say goodbye with this Christmas special, rather than hearing we'd been cancelled. After almost eight years of playing vet Danny Trevanion, will there be a big Wild at Heart shaped hole in your heart now? 'Definitely. Wild at Heart star Stephen Tompkinson says a fond goodbye to the long-running South African drama.

Wild at heart cast steve