As he did not have a mobile phone on him, he had to walk a mile and a half back to his car in order to call for help, describing the incident as “unexpected”.
He told the Daily Mirror: “It came like a bolt out of the blue. I knew what it was – intense pain under my sternum – it was a heart attack. And I thought, ‘Well, I can’t go down here!’
“So I walked on, crouched a little bit every now and again when the pain got a little bit worse, got to my car, phoned for an ambulance and they said it would be 90-odd minutes.”
Williams added: “So my wife, Ceri, came down, drove me to the hospital, and from then on I was in the hands of the NHS. They were superb.”
Following the major scare, Williams had to have a stent fitted in one of his arteries to ensure regular blood flow to the heart, although the difficult procedure led to a clot that left him unable to work on last year’s Springwatch.
Fortunately, he has made a recovery and will be on our screens across four Winterwatch specials, due to be aired on BBC Two sometime in the coming weeks (precise air date to be confirmed).
He said: “This series we can look forward to seeing Arne at its brilliant best. Winter in and around Arne is a fantastic time. Some of the summer highlights are not there: the nightjars have gone back down to Africa, a lot of the reptiles will have disappeared underground into hibernation.
“But the shallow lagoons and the harbour there just comes into its own now, because it’ll be alive with thousands of waders and wildfowl.
“And that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing more than anything else.”
Winterwatch is coming soon to BBC Two. Check out more of our Documentaries coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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