We recently had the pleasure of attending Steve Backshall`s Wild World Tour show at St. David`s Hall, Cardiff with our two children. This was the last show on his nationwide tour, which had started in Scotland in October and taken in 21 different locations in total. Steve is now very well-known through his television presenting, writing, not to mention his appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014!
The show itself was a mixture of Steve talking about his encounters with a huge variety of animals from around the world, illustrated with photos and films from his various expeditions. There was also an opportunity for members of the audience to ask Steve different and at times challenging questions, which to be fair he answered with aplomb! To do all of this without the aid of any script was very impressive, as was the way he delivered his talk, which was pitched in a way which was both understandable to children and adults alike. Before you knew it, after a short interval, the show was over, much to our children`s disappointment. To have kept them quiet for that length of time was an achievement in itself, so a huge hat`s off to Steve for the way he drew all the audience members, both young and old, into the show, and kept the interest levels high throughout, engaging everyone with his enthusiasm and sheer knowledge.
Steve is every bit the genuine nice guy I imagined him to be, he is so passionate about animals and clearly loves the planet. I was so impressed that he stayed behind after the show to have his picture taken with anyone who wanted one, the queue was massive! In my view, this makes him stand out from other so called `celebs`, he is very down to earth and very approachable.
In a time where many children spend far too much time staring at screens, and not interacting with nature at all, it’s great to see that a person can captivate and get children interested in going outdoors and engaging with animals. He really is an inspiration to young people.
This was illustrated to us very quickly, because as soon as we returned home from the show my son wanted to watch the television programme that Steve presents, Deadly 60!
