From Howards End, Mr Selfridge and Cambridge Spies to All Creatures Great and Small, actor Samuel West - son of the late great Prunella Scales and Timothy West - has starred in some of the country's most respected TV dramas and movies. But he's now taking on a very different role - as himself.

Together with Adrian Edmondson, who is married to Jennifer Saunders, he is visiting Cornwall, Norfolk and Somerset in search of some of Britain's most beautiful birds for a charming new Channel 5 series that started this week. Brent and pink-footed geese, Kingfishers, Cornish Choughs and Bitterns are just some of the birds the two friends stake out as well as sharing personal stories on the programme that hopes to emulate the success of Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer's Gone Fishing.

And for Samuel, 59, it's the perfect chance to share with the nation a passion that he has enjoyed for more than 20 years away from drama scripts. "My partner, Laura, says it gets me out of the house," he chuckles. "It's the escapist antidote to a busy screen filled life where I can be caught up in my own human problems. "But as soon as I hear a birdsong, which in Spring is at its best, I am in my happiest place. It's good the birds are not human too!"

Roaring with laughter as he jovially chats about his big bird love, he says he isn't nervous about the fact he is being himself rather than a character on TV. "It's a bit different not having a character to hide behind I suppose," Samuel concedes. "But I suppose I have faith in what I am doing - the bird watching bit. I don't mind making mistakes as I am convinced that's the way we learn."

He says the programme makers first suggested he go out with a different celebrity each time thet filmed. "But I thought that sounded a bit like Celebrity bird watching and suggested we just have one. My immediate thought was Adrian Edmondson. I asked him and he said, 'yes' by return."

The pair became friends seven years ago during filming of a guest appearance on the BBC's Death in Paradise. "We got talking in the departure gate," he recalls. "He noticed I was using my days off to see the bird life and in between beers and very nice pizzas, we became friends. He's a very considerate person. Like a lot of comics, he is very serious about things that matter to him. And when he wants to know something, he really commits to it, which is lovely."

How does he feel about them both becoming the new Gone Fishing Paul and Bob? "I am not a fisherman myself but I'd be honoured to be compared to their wonderful programme," he replies. "It represents a lot of the things I care about in the world. A love of nature, a hobby and friendship between two people who are kind."

An incredibly personable and likeable actor, Samuel is very thoughtful when he chats about what his famous parents would have made of their son presenting a wildlife programme. "I think they would like it," he says, sounding reflective. "I think it would chime to mum's interests. She introduced me to the novel Swallows and Amazons and to big walks in the woods. The fact I spend a good amount of time in nature would please her. I also took my dad birding a few times and he was touchingly into it. We went out in Chichester and I told him I wanted to get this telescope for birding. I didn't have it at the time and he bought it for me for my birthday."

He smiles as he then happily declares: "That's when I properly got into bird watching - in my 40s!"

Given he does think his parents would have liked his new series, it is very fitting, then, that bird watching has proved so cathartic as Samuel comes to terms with his mother's sad death last October at the age of 93 and that of his father in November 2024 at the age of 90.

Poignantly, this Tuesday's episode in Norfolk was filmed just one week after Prunella passed away. Samuel was on the Isle of Scilly with his long-term partner, Laura, and their two daughters birdwatching when he received a call to say she'd died. "I was on St Agnes," he recalls. "I go there a lot birdwatching and our children were the most Westerly children in Britain at the moment their grandmother died.

"We were then filming this bird watching series in Norfolk a week later. But being there after my mum's death was special. I never thought I wouldn't do it as she always believed the show must go on. And she would have wanted me to film it. I didn't know how I would feel but I was in a place doing something I loved with somebody (Ade) I knew would be sensitive and loving to the situation. It was a real comfort."

He pauses, smiles and then confides: "We'd been in a church in Norfolk talking about death and parents and suddenly, some pink footed geese on their way to roost flew over the church. It was the most extraordinary moment. You couldn't have planned it."

He and his family are currently planning a special memorial service for his mum. "We are doing it about nine months after she died," he explains. "This will be just enough time for us to be much happier than if we'd done it three months after. We did my dad's ten months after and it was hilarious!"

He says bird watching - Samuel is also an ambassador for the RSPB - has helped him with his grief. "There is something about getting out in the world that is not human and immersing yourself in it," he says. "It helps put your own personal problems into perspective. Even if it's loss, you need to make a space for it where grief is liveable. You can't ignore grief."

He is incredibly grateful both his parents were famous as it means he will always be able to watch or listen to them. He explains: "The one thing that has surprised me is you think you know the meaning of the phrase 'you will never see them again', but then it suddenly hits you. I'd give anything for an hour with them now. You want to share things with them.

"But I am in a very privileged position. An awful lot of my mother and father's work is available."

He confides he's currently listening to his mother's reading of the Mapp and Lucia audiobooks, written by E.F Benson. He says: "If I miss their voice, I can just go to my father's readings of the Trollope novels or my mother's reading of E.F Benson and that's what I am doing in the car now. Many people share that with me and it's very nice to know that it gives a lot of joy to other people."

Like his famous parents, Samuel has no airs or graces and he reveals bird watching runs in the family. It was his Uncle Tim, he confides, who first got him into the wonders of the creatures. "I went to see my uncle in Kenya in 1980 where he lived," he recalls. "The birdlife in Nairobi is probably the best city in the world for birdwatching. It was so exciting seeing things like ostriches. When I got back to England, I realised most birds are called LBJs - little brown jobs. But now some of them are my favourite birds. I am devoted to the idea of nothing really being boring."

Thankfully his partner, playwright and Rivals screenwriter Laura Wade, who he met in 2007, enjoys going out searching for birds as much as he does. "Laura is very into it," he says proudly. "But when I first met her, she didn't have any flat shoes and I was a bit worried! She came on a twitch with me to see the first American Robin in Yorkshire. There were about a million pound of optics arranged round this bird. She said 'this is very strange, this is wonderful, I love this'. And it became our main hobby. Our children are eleven and eight and they are quite into it if coupled with ice cream and chips!"

Not surprisingly, he'd love to film some more episodes when he isn't busy shooting All Creatures Great and Small. One of his favourite birds is a Dipper. "They are bonkers, they live on fast flowing streams," he enthuses. "We'd love to do some more. My father was happy working at the age of 90 and I hope I don't have to stop too soon either. If you can still learn your lines and not bump into the furniture, then that is ok. Older people do need to play some parts. My father first played King Lear at the age of 37. He last played it at the age of 82 - so there is hope for us all!"

Samuel admits he is also very proud his mother used to regularly ask him to come along to her preview. "Having a mum in the same profession meant I always asked her to come to the shows in the previews in case she had any useful notes," he adds. "I am very proud to say that later in life, she invited me to her previews too."

He returns to his love of bird watching and I ask what bird he'd come back as in another life. "I'd be an Eider Duck," says the good-natured star. "I am very fond of ducks; I like feeding them and I like watching them.

"An Eider duck looks like a 1930s speed boat with a pistachio stripe on it!"

He pauses, and then affectionately referring to Sybil and the role that made his mum famous in Fawlty Towers, smiling as he continues: "It's very glamorous but its voice is all Frankie Howard! It's a bit like Sybil as it sounds like it's gossiping!"

• Sam & Ade Go Birding continues Tuesdays at 8pm. Watch/Stream on 5