'We have a morbid fascination for wildlife that can harm us' - Steve Backshall brings his Deadly tour to Yorkshire
Adventurer Steve Backshall tells Laura Reid about some of his close encounters with the world's deadliest predators and why young people are his most important audience.
If you’ve spent three decades coming up close with some of the world’s deadliest predators, there’s bound to have been a few hairy moments. But has Steve Backshall ever been worried about making it out alive?
“It does definitely happen,” the wildlife presenter and adventurer chuckles, “though probably less than people might imagine. There have been a couple of times diving with crocodiles where we’ve had super close calls where crocs have come at us at speed underwater.
"And there is nothing more guaranteed to focus your attention than having a five-metre-long crocodile swimming at you along the bottom of a swamp in Southern Africa. Those are the moments you look back on like how on earth did we all manage to get out of that?”
Over his career, Backshall has explored places many have not dared to go, trekking wild deserts, wrangling with snakes in dense jungles and delving into deep caves. Pretty much every day on the road has something weird and wild, he says and he’s been “lucky” to get up close to dozens of the world’s most venomous snakes species and dive with over 100 shark species and almost all kinds of crocodiles.
Coming “nose-to-nose” with the likes of Tiger Sharks and Great Whites “who are absolutely the boss of you, there are times you can feel very fragile, very vulnerable,” he says. “But at the same time, (those experiences) give you a sense of how special nature and wildlife can be.”
Such formidable predators are at the heart of Backshall’s latest show, touring to Yorkshire this week. Deadly Live! sees him take audiences on a journey through time as he tracks creatures from big cats and birds of prey to dinosaurs, snakes and spiders.
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"The show follows the evolution of life all the way from its genesis well over a billion years ago all the way through to modern times,” Backshall says, speaking from his home in Cornwall where he lives with his wife Helen and their three children.
"It picks up at the parts in history where each we meet different kinds of deadly animal...As we get to them in the timeline, I talk about what makes them special and then we bring them to life on stage…It’s packed full of information but it also has a lot of fun, a lot of slapstick humour, circus skills, stunts and tricks. It has been an absolute blast to make, one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.”
The show is based on Backshall’s popular children’s programme series Deadly, which follows him and his crew as they track several animals in their habitats, giving details about what makes them notable, their predatory behaviour and their impact on the wider ecosystem.
“I think, generally, we have a morbid fascination for anything that could harm us,” he says. “That probably goes back to prehistoric times when we would have been living alongside so-called deadly animals and wanting to know about them was probably the difference between staying alive or getting eaten by something…
"I think we’re also fascinated by things that have extraordinary speed and power, toxins and venom, all the things that in many ways seem inherently thrilling to us. It’s the reason why I’ve tended to focus on this particular kind of wildlife - because it has a universal fascination.
"People seem to fall over themselves to get interested in it. I know when people are watching my shows, some of it is wanting to see me get bitten by stuff. But there’s also a sense of there’s something deserving of respect. There’s something in the visceral and untameable nature of nature that people are excited by.”
Series seven of Deadly 60 launched on CBBC earlier this year – and soon Backshall will begin filming for the show again, as well as recording closer to home – in Cornwall – for more small screen work. It means for 30 years now he’s been doing a job “I absolutely love”.
It all began after a period of travelling Asia whilst writing guidebooks, when Backshall then came up with an idea for a TV programme and went to the jungles of Colombia with a video camera. He sold his film to National Geographic, who took him on as an adventurer in residence – and he’s been exploring ever since.
“It’s a joy and something I don’t take lightly,” he reflects. “Now I have the opportunity to share all this both with my own kids but also with hundreds of thousands of kids across the UK and across the world and that’s really important.
"Youngsters need inspiration, they need something to pour their enthusiasm into. And if it’s something healthy and uplifting and positive like the natural world then that’s a good thing. Young people who learn to embrace nature are the same youngsters who hopefully in future are going to want to learn how to save nature.”
Young people, he says, are his most important audience. “You’re talking to people who haven’t made up their mind how they feel about the world or what their passions are going to be and you genuinely have an opportunity to kickstart someone's love for nature,” he says.
“You don’t get adults who suddenly dump everything and decide they’re going to be a marine biologist…When we’re young, we are looking around us thinking about what our enthusiasms are going to be and that’s such an incredible opportunity.
"Knowing that I can promote something that is going to give people a really good life if they were to throw themselves into it, I feel I’ve got a certain responsibility to do just that.”
- Steve Backshall’s Deadly Live! UK Tour is at Sheffield Utilita Arena on October 23 and Leeds First Direct Bank Arena on October 25. For tickets, visit DeadlyLiveTour.com