When Changing Rooms interior designer and ex-I'm A Celebrity contestant, Anna Ryder Richardson jumped on the idea of buying a rundown wildlife park in South West Wales, her family and friends thought she was bonkers. 

Less than a year later and after parting with one million pounds Anna, her restaurateur husband Colin MacDougal and their two young daughters Dixey and Bibi, left their happy, settled life in Glasgow and bought Manor House Wildlife Park, St. Florence, complete with 140 animals.

"I overheard my husband talking one day to a friend about zoos, investments and so on," says Anna, "and it was like a light bulb going off in my head."

In the first episode of a new six-part series, Wild Welsh Zoo (Wednesday, September 9, BBC One Wales), Anna, Colin and a small dedicated team are working around the clock before the public walk through the gates. And there's a quiet panic in the air.  

"Just getting the whole place up and running is like playing with a big heavy ball of concrete," says Colin, who looks after the day-to-day running of the park.

"But hopefully once it starts it won't stop rolling."

"Colin does all the business side of things and therefore all the worrying," quips Anna.

"Then I'll say 'I think it would be really nice to paint that white' or 'should we put some lavender there?' and 'lets get some pigs!'"  

Now living in a flat-pack Scandinavian cabin in the middle of the park, Anna and her family are preparing to open to the public for their first full season. And with a more conservation-led approach, they are way over budget. But that doesn't deter Anna and the passion she has for her animals. 

With less than an hour until opening, one of the park's zookeepers, Sarah Eastwood from Tenby, is trying to lure the meerkats into a net to take them to their new enclosure. She's caught one, but the others are fast outwitting her means of capture and it's becoming a battle of minds.

"The thing with meerkats is that they have a leader, and I've already caught him!" says Sarah.

"So the others are waiting for the signal to step forward but I've missed twice now so they're getting wise to me, or more likely nervous," she adds.

Anna's philosophy is 'animals un-caged' and work has already begun on a £60,000 new home for Steve, the Siamang gibbon.

He was inherited by the family when they took over the wildlife park and so far he has spent all of his 12 years behind bars there.

The work involves a specially dug out island with trees for him. But it doesn't end there as Anna has plans to move in a girlfriend for him, which will mean a trip to southern Ireland to bring back Lisa the gibbon.   

When asked if she has any regrets about leaving behind her former life, Anna will tell you herself that she's been more than happy to put away the high heels and glamour and to throw on her green wellies to get muddy each morning.  

"Now I'd rather spend £70,000 on a state of the art habitat for a troupe of Madagascan lemurs than on a Ferrari!" says Anna. 

"It couldn't be more different than my life before," says Anna.  "It's amazing that I have this person lurking inside me and I adore it, I want more of it."