She turns 49 in a few days, but Julia Bradbury barely flinches at the thought. It is five years since the presenter left Countryfile, the show that cemented her as a national favourite, and she is the middle of another successful TV year.

She’s also a harassed mum juggling three young children. Yet middle age? What middle age? She isn’t a woman who plays by convention.

Nothing demonstrated that more than when she posed naked last year, lying on top of 750 artfully arranged plastic bottles, to promote the need to recycle – a passion of hers.

Julia says nudity is something she’s always been pretty casual about. At home, she and partner Gerard Cunningham are “happy to be naked”.

(Image: David Venni / Chilli Media)

She adds: “We are very open about that. I think you need a healthy attitude towards nudity. My kids were proud of the image – they saw it. It doesn’t mean anything to them as they see me walking around naked all the time.

“They are far too young now to be talking about body image, but it does key into that in these early stages, and the ‘What are the differences between boys and girls and men and women?’

“It’s not something that bothers me. You see almost naked people on the beach. Clearly I wasn’t doing it from a sex bomb point of view.

“It’s about a subject I’m passionate about, and I don’t care really. I’ve got to this age, and it did make noise.

“I stand by that picture. The point is people were talking about it.

“I was lying on 750 bottles – that is the number that are dumped in England every single minute. Only a tiny percentage will be recycled.”

Since her stint on Countryfile Julia has really thrown herself into the war against plastic, and tried to teach her son Zephyrus, seven, and four-year-old twin girls Xanthe and Zena, the same ethos. But it is not easy.

(Image: @JuliaBradbury)

Julia adds: “I haven’t bought my ­children any plastic toys and yet they have a cupboard full of them. I have a friend who kept buying them plastic, and every time I said, ‘Please don’t.’ The last present was a wooden toy. My little boy has had Lego gifts, but it’s not single use and can last for decades.”

She recently threw him a plastic-free birthday party. She says: “Goody bags were made of recycled Indian newspapers, full of sustainable toys, recyclable plates and cups – no balloons, pizza in cardboard boxes and glass water bottles.

“They don’t need balloons, they don’t notice them.”

Julia’s positivity and love of life make it easy to see why she’s bordering on national treasure territory. And that status must have made her a shoo-in for her latest presenting job on new show Britain’s National Treasures, alongside Sir Trevor McDonald.

It counts down the top 20 iconic British sites and ­buildings as voted by the public. Not that Sir Trevor will accept the title national treasure for a second, Julia insists. In fact he hates it. She says: “I did try to make some jokes about him being a national treasure, but he didn’t like it.”

(Image: ITV) (Image: ITV)

However, Julia has no problem with the term. She adds: “I don’t know if there’s an age limit, but people sometimes jokingly call me a national treasure on Twitter and that’s a compliment. I don’t mind. Let’s see if they are still calling me a national treasure when I’m 80.”

Over the years, the presenter has made a name for herself on a range of shows, including Britain’s Best Walks, which champion all the UK’s landscape has to offer. Her new programme will visit some much-loved “treasures” around the country, and count down to the nation’s favourite. Julia says: “We must be proud of what we have got in this country, and ­celebrate what we have.

“It’s not just buildings and places, but natural landscapes… from the Lake District to the British Museum. It’s an eclectic mix.

“What is a national treasure? It’s a place that ­resonates with us as a country and as ­individuals, and has a strong identity. I would have the Lake District in my top three, and the Jurassic ­coastline, but I like buildings as well, so I might go for something like St Paul’s. Our entire coastline is a national treasure.”

(Image: ITV)

That is why Julia is backing our Give Kids A Seaside Smile campaign, to raise money so ­struggling families can enjoy a beach holiday. She says: “We used to go to Scotland for seaside ­holidays when I was little. I loved beachcombing with my dad, looking for driftwood and shells. Sadly, there’s so much plastic today so when my kids are on the beach we make it a plastic beach clean as well. Every beach holiday we do a litter pick.”

Julia made the agonising decision to quit Countryfile, which she had co-presented with John Craven, in 2014 because she was battling to have a second child through IVF.

(Image: BBC)

She and Gerard, 58, had conceived Zephyrus naturally, but that wasn’t to be again, due in part to the ­endometriosis she suffered.

Julia had undergone two rounds of fertility treatment while still filming the show, but her schedule alongside the gruelling process became ­impossible to manage. She left, went on to have three more rounds of IVF, and finally conceived her twins.

Julia recalls: “It was a very difficult decision. But I can sit now, five years later, with my little girls, and it’s not a decision I can ever regret because for me the outcome was a happy one.

“Had I not been successful I might think differently, but I don’t really believe in regrets.”

Julia is now preparing for the school summer holiday, with trips to her mum’s native Greece as well as ­Derbyshire and Wales.

She says: “I have visited most places in the UK before. But there is always something new to see.”