Ahead of his new UK tour, wildlife presenter Steve Backshall talks about childhood memories, his commitment to inspiring the younger generation and Cecil the lion.
Steve Backshall is a man best known for going where others fear to tread, whether it’s free diving alongside great white sharks, heading to California to film blue whales live on the BBC or risking the lash of Craig Revel Horwood’s forked tongue on Strictly Come Dancing, he has never been afraid to pit himself against some of this planet’s most dangerous and deadly creatures.
On our TV screens for over 16 years and with more than 10 successful books to his increasingly well-respected name, Steve attributes his distinguished career to his exceedingly charmed childhood.
“My parents were a massive, massive part of my young life and my growing interest in the outdoors,” says Steve. “I was lucky enough to be brought up on a small farm surrounded by animals and raised by parents who took me travelling to some of the coolest, most exciting places on earth, and gave me such wonderful experiences from a very young age.”
It’s his wish to instil a similar love of wildlife in other young people that has motivated Steve to undertake a mammoth UK tour. With 21 dates lined up across the country before he caps it off with an evening Cardiff’s St David’s Hall.
“I think it’s really important for young people to have the chance to interact with me and ask me questions,” he says. “Every time I do this tour I’ve been lucky enough to meet a six year old child with a book in their hand and a big smile on their face and know that this experience will have a big impact on their future. Or, I’ll talk to a 22 year old who is studying biology at university who’ll tell me they got interested in the subject by watching my show as a kid. Nothing compares to that feeling. Nothing.”
Coming off the back of his latest book Mountain: Life On The Rocks, the tour will include tales of daring ascents up treacherous jungle peaks and venturing into cave systems which have never before seen the light of day.
“I’ve been so lucky to be involved in expeditions to such amazing places and to have been able to have encounters with some of the largest and deadliest creatures on earth. This tour talks about all that and more.”
For those of us who feel that a trip into our overgrown back gardens is enough of an expedition in itself, the tour also includes some surprisingly intimate tales featuring creatures you won’t have needed to scale the peaks of Mount Kuli in the Borneo jungle to be able to recognise.
“Sometimes it’s the things we think of as common-place which hold the greatest power to surprise,” says Steve. “Like the first time you see a dragon fly taking off or a butterfly emerging as a winged adult from a cocoon. These things which many of us take for granted are actually incredibly dazzling.”’
It’s this boundless sense of wonder which Steve finds so appealing about the natural world.
“‘I’ve always had an inquisitive, interrogative sort of mind and the beauty of a subject like this is that you can never know everything about it. That’s its charm. I know full well that I will be able to study this for the rest of my life and still not come close to knowing everything.”
So with endless material to cover and an audience Q&A session taking up a large section of the evening, does Steve ever find himself getting stumped while on tour?
“‘Oh, crikey, sometimes!” Steve concedes. “The natural world is infinite so you can never hope to know everything about it, but I am confident in my subject and I am happy with the majority of the answers that I give. My favourite questions are always the ones that make me think though. Questions like where does the eye come from? Do polar bears get lonely? Do penguins’ feet freeze? What is the point of a wasp? All those sorts of questions are always really, really interesting.”
Aside from helping to satisfy people’s curiosity though, Steve’s drive to get younger people more interested in wildlife has a far more serious intent as well.
“I think that we are living in a world where green issues are becoming an ever more pressing issue and we as the human race have to play our part in addressing that. I think there is a tendency in the scientific community at the moment to aim their research solely at other scientists and that’s a mistake. After all, it’s not scientists that we need to try and get interested in these sorts of issues. It’s the general public.”
This issue of public awareness and interest in environmental matters is particularly prevalent in the wake of Cecil the lion’s death at the hands of America dentist and big game hunter Walter Palmer. Steve, for one, thinks that this incident could succeed in creating changes to hunting laws that decades of charity work have been unable to bring in.
“I think it’s very important that people working in conservation take note of the way Cecil’s death was reported and the overwhelming emotional response that the story got from the public. It woke a lot of people up to what’s going on and though I don’t think it will have much of an impact on illegal poaching, I do feel that legal hunters, knowing how Walter Palmer was hounded afterwards, will think twice about shelling out ten thousand pounds to go and shoot a big cat.”
Steve has certainly grown in stature since starting out on children’s TV, becoming a voice of reason on global events and the BBC’S go-to guy when they needed someone experienced and fearless enough to host their live whale-watching show Big Blue Live.
“I’m off to Monterey Bay in California as soon as my tour finishes,” says Steve, “and I think it will be one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever taken on. Filming whales is always going to be big, but to try and do it live when it can take many hours of patiently waiting just to catch a glimpse of one is a scary thought. I’m both excited and nervous about doing it.”
Being so in-demand does have its drawbacks though and his tight schedule means that Steve won’t have time to calm his nerves with a traditional post-tour knees up.
“By the time of the last show I think I’ll be so knackered that there will be no opportunity for partying! If I was going to party though then Cardiff would be a certainly be a cracking place for it!”
It seems wildlife isn’t the only thing Steve knows a lot about then and hopefully his next tour will see him have more time to explore the streets of our capital city- certainly every bit as exhilarating as any trek through the jungle!
Steve Backshall Wild World, St David’s Hall, Sun 15 Nov, Tickets: £18.50. Info: 029 2087 8444 / www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
words RACHEL REES
photo ADAM WHITE