About Andy Torbet

Find out about Andy’s life and career.

The TV Presenter, Stunt Performer and Film-maker

To date Andy has presented on 22 TV Series on BBC1, BBC2, CBBC, Discovery US and The History Channel.

He is also a professional Stunt Performer (what they call themselves rather than Stunt Man or Woman) and a Member of the prestigious British Stunt Register.

He has performed on a variety of blockbuster movies and TV shows over the last few years.

And he has produced and directed documentary films for TV, Corporate clients and Film Festivals.

He continues to work as a specialist technical consultant on documentary projects involving underwater, climbing, caving or skydiving filming.

The Soldier

Andy spent 10 years in the British Forces as a Paratrooper, Diver and Bomb Disposal Officer, including serving with the Airborne Brigade, Army’s Underwater Bomb Disposal Team and the Maritime Counter Terrorist Group. He was involved in operations in Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Northern Ireland and The Falklands. After leaving the Forces he spent 4 years working in the security, intelligence and surveillance sector in the UK and Europe, Afghanistan, Pakistan and West Africa.

The Diver

Andy started diving at the age of 12 and has been at it ever since; on operations in the Forces, on commercial vessels, over sunken cities, in caves, deep wrecks and across unexplored reefs. He has a long list of technical diving qualifications, including cave, mixed gas, rebreather and free-diving as well as his professional qualifications as a military and commercial diver and supervisor. His passion is exploration whether it’s exploring new underwater cave systems, new species or new shipwrecks and especially in those area difficult to reach which may require him to combine his elite diving knowledge with his other technical skills.

The Skydiver

As a Skydiver and Wingsuiter Andy has had the opportunity to jump for various movies and TV documentaries including performing a HAHO (High Altitude High Opening), jumping solo from 28,000ft over the Arizona desert with various scientific collection apparatus strapped to his chest, racing a Peregrine Falcon – the fastest animal in the world, strapping prototype jet-engines to his legs and various stunts including recreating WW2 drops.

He competes in Speed Skydiving, the fastest human powered sport in the world, where top competitors can reach speeds over 500kmph. In 2022 he represented Team GB in the World Skydiving Championship in the USA.

The Outdoorsman

Andy is also a qualified Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor and member of the Association of Mountaineering Instructors with new routes and first ascents in the UK, Canada and Pakistan and ice climbs on Greenlandic galciers and even on icebergs in the Arctic Ocean. He also holds a number of caving qualification and was once a sea-kayak guide.

Growing up in the Highlands, with his Father a Forester, Andy’s playground and back garden was the woods, rivers, loch and wild landscape of the Scottish outdoors.

His love for travelling and living in wild places encouraged him to learn bushcraft skills and about the plants, animals and geography of nature and the resources at one’s disposal.

A keen horse rider and archer he now resides in a forest on the English-Welsh border.

Search and Rescue

Andy volunteers with the Severn Area Rescue Association as a Cliff and Rope Rescue Team Leader and Instructor and as a team member of the river and flood rescue team. He also volunteers with his local Cave Rescue Group.

The Academic

Andy studied Zoology (BSc Hons) at University before joining the Forces and since leaving has found the time to study for a Diploma in Nautical Archaeology and is currently undertaking a Masters in Archaeology in his ‘spare time’.

Unsurprisingly, given the technical and extreme nature of the work he undertakes, he maintains an interest in physiology, physics and engineering. He is especially interested in Hyper- and Hypo-Baric medicine and physics.

He has is also a member of MENSA, the High IQ Society, and a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers’ Club.