Inside Helen Skelton and Dan Walker's sweet decade-long friendship

The popular duo first met over a decade ago when Helen was a presenter on Blue Peter and they were both working on the show's The Big Olympic Tour in 2012. 

Speaking about their long-lasting friendship, Dan said in a recent interview: "We've been really good pals for so long and we know what makes each other tick, and we're very comfortable in each other's spaces."

The pair clearly enjoy working together on their Channel 5 show, with Dan telling The Mirror: "What's lovely is we have normal friend conversations about daft stuff while we're walking along filming. We've both said we wouldn't make this show with anybody else because it wouldn't really work because you've got to do it with somebody you feel totally comfortable with, and you can be honest and trust that person."

While Helen and Dan are often praised by viewers for their on-screen chemistry, they also have great banter off-screen. 

Dan told TV Times: "We're similar and we care about each other. But we laugh at each other, too, and, on our walks, we ask silly questions and list things like our top 10 Helens, from Helen Hunt to Helen of Troy. Helen Skelton was No 7!"

Chiming in, Helen said: "I didn't even make the top five! We've been fitting this around our other commitments like Dan's Classic FM show and my time on (BBC1's) Morning Live, so we've had little sleep, but we've never had a bad word."

The mum-of-three added: "Dan is the clever one and knows all the historical references and sings a lot, but we both bring morale, jokes and banter."

After Helen announced that she'd be stepping down from her Radio 5 Live show last summer, Dan defended her decision. 

During an appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show at the time, he hailed his co-star as a "dedicated mum". "She is an incredibly dedicated mum to her three children and she would say if she were here this morning - she's not, she is with her kids this morning - she would say that parents are making compromises all the time," he said.

'Two [of her children] play football on a Sunday morning and she's made the decision that practically, she would much rather watch them play football and encourage them to do that than be on the radio at that time," continued the broadcaster.

"Anyone who ever spends any time with Helen, or watches her on her programmes, all she does is speak about her kids."

Helen and Dan have both spoken of their shared love of nature and walking. Ahead of Dan & Helen's Pennine Adventure, which was released last year, Helen said: "We both love the Pennines and we both like walking, so it was 'Shall we just go and do a bit of that for telly?' It was just a really nice opportunity to work with a friend and to celebrate a nice part of the world."

Meanwhile, Dan said: "We've known each other for over a decade, so when the opportunity came up and they said 'We'd like to make a travelogue' I loved the idea of working with Helen," he explained. 

"We'd never done it before but we're really good friends. Then I rang Helen about it. I know she gets loads of offers to do things all the time but for me it was the opportunity to work with her and to make a programme about a place that we're both really passionate about."