Steve Backshall’s Wild World City Hall, Salisbury BAFTA winning TV star and wildlife explorer Steve Backshall captivated children at the City Hall on Friday evening by reliving some of his most daring escapades.

Covering the topics of "venom", "size", "speed" and "bite", Steve talked about his life as a wildlife television presenter. Through a mixture of Powerpoint slides, video clips and anecdotes, he persuaded the audience that wild animals aren’t naturally dangerous to humans.

We were entertained with clips from the past ten years of the naturalist’s Deadly 60 TV shows, (and, as Steve apologised, 10 years of terrible haircuts) including when he almost passed out after being repeatedly stung by bullet ants – said to cause the worst pain known to man, being pursued by a polar bear and swimming with great white sharks, whales, crocodiles and teeth-baring leopard seals.

Steve has inspired a new generation of nature lovers – this was evident as scores of eager youngsters shouted out the names of the animals with each new picture he displayed.

Audience participation was a huge part of the show and both before the interval and at the end of the evening, there was a chance to ask Steve some questions. These ranged from: "What has been your biggest challenge?" (The cha-cha on Strictly, apparently); and "What inspired you to become a wildlife explorer?" (Growing up on a smallholding in Surrey helped to cement his interest, and his parents, who are his heroes), to "If a polar bear started trying to eat you, would your team have to shoot it?" (Steve insisted he's never put himself in a situation that dangerous and would hate to cause the destruction of an animal’s life for a TV show).

Quoting famous explorer George Mallory, Steve urged his young fans to start taking an interest in the wildlife in their own back gardens and appealed to the next generation of explorers to campaign to protect endangered species, in particular some shark species which are still being killed today for their fins. He argued mankind’s tendency to fear and abuse animals rather than find ways to work with the natural world is as harmful to us as it is to them.

The show was not just fascinating for the children, but incredibly interesting and entertaining for adults too. Steve came across as a thoroughly nice man and even spent time after the show meeting, chatting and having his picture taken with some of his fans.

CHRISTINE STOCK