Copyright manchestereveningnews
Kicking off his first ever UK Arena tour in Manchester just in time for school half-term, award-winning wildlife presenter Steve Backshall has landed at the O2 Arena with Deadly Live! The show is based on the hit BBC TV show Deadly 60, now in its sixth series, where the seemingly fearless adventurer travels the world to find the 60 deadliest animals on the planet. Going back tens of millions of years ago right through to today, in just the first half we witness him being bitten, stung and pooed upon as he takes us on a high octane journey across land, sea and sky. We go from venomous snakes the length of two double decker buses to mere ants that can inflict unbearable pain grossly disproportionate to their size. Water predators range from caymans to flamboyant cuttlefish - that's their actual name, as we get as close to predators as most of us would ever want to. It wouldn't be a kids' show though without a helping of burps and flatulence and the wildlife enthusiast doesn't miss any chance to insert a bottom joke. The bottom-breathing turtle though, is deadly serious. Other animal dad jokes abound as Dinomania dinosaurs join him onstage and thermo imaging cameras are used on the audience to fun effect, all providing a nice antidote for younger children to the slightly scarier visuals of the tenacious TV star getting bitten, or a komodo dragon tearing at its catch. The second half starts with the buff Backshall losing his pants - not on stage, sadly, for the mums in the audience, but on film. Spoiler: he's fully covered by seawater. Footage of the best dancers in the animal kingdom follows, neatly seguing to a really rather good clip of Backshall on TV's Strictly Come Dancing back in 2014. Next we see him, via video clips on giant screens, tracking down sharks and getting far too close to Great Whites, and as if that fun in the water isn't high adrenaline enough, we then witness the plucky presenter rowing serenely - well, outwardly anyway - right alongside a polar bear. Birds of prey and the big cats are up next and he wouldn't be Steve Backshall if we didn't see him getting within whispering, nevermind roaring distance, of a pride of lions. It's a show with stunts, science and plenty of smiles. Backshall is every child's dream primary school teacher and the show is as educational for adults as it is for kids. It's amazing all the creatures' names most adults don't know that the children correctly chorus back at him when he quizzes them! He wraps up the show with a moving call to arms: "Here today We have 5000 people that think nature matters. "That's an army, a battalion, and together we can save our Blue Planet."
