ANIMAL lovers can join Children’s TV presenter Naomi Wilkinson to face their fears of creepy critters.

Naomi’s Wild and Scary tour is at City Hall Salisbury on April 6, 7pm

As part of the nationwide tour the presenter of CBBC’s Naomi’s Nightmares of Nature will be reliving her most frightening and scary experiences she has had on the show and the weird, dangerous and scary creatures she has met along the way.

The family friendly show will be packed full of fun and surprises.

“There will be plenty of audience participation, silliness just fun for all the family,” says Naomi, who is also a regular presenter on BBC1’s Countryfile.

Naomi will be joined on stage by zoologist Animal Mark (Mark Amey), and some of his scariest creatures. Mark is a zoologist and lifelong naturalist keeper and breeder of exotic pets. He has starred in and worked on countless TV shows and films, looking after amazing animal stars.

Naomi, who has travelled to Borneo, Belize, Africa and Australia to name a few destinations, is also keen to help others get over some of their animal fears, just as she has done over the years.

As she admits: “For me I’ve had a huge journey trying to overcome a phobia of sharks. Obviously, when you tell the production team you have a serious fear of something they literally throw you in the deep end with the sharks.

“I wouldn’t say I’m cured but I have certainly made massive progress in overcoming my fear. Initially, I couldn’t look at a photograph of one in a book.”

She has swum with about seven species of shark. “I’m doing pretty well facing that fear, I’ve really changed my whole perspective and outlook on sharks and that is quite a big message I want to get across within the show that you can overcome your fears.”

She says facing your fears is about changing the way you think about these animals and learning more about their behaviours.

She continues: “There are plenty of animals I would still like to see. In the way we like to frighten ourselves by going on rollercoasters or into haunted houses and scary films, I would like to see a great white shark probably not in the water , I think I would quite like to be a in a boat.”

Naomi started out as a children’s TV presenter on Milkshake and says her foray into the world of animals came “out of the blue” after she was asked to work with Steve Backshall on Wild and Deadly. This led to her getting her own spin-off show Naomi’s Nightmares.

“We are so lucky because we get quite privileged access to some of the creatures and places. I’m quite often pinching myself when I'm standing somewhere looking out and I can’t quite believe where I am,” Naomi explains.

She says she is looking forward to bringing the tour to Salisbury and says: “To be in front of the audience that watches the television programme and to be able to introduce them to these frightening animals and see their reaction, I’m really looking forward to that interaction with the audience.”

“You need to be brave if you are prepared to come along but don’t worry I won’t be handing any spiders out to anybody to hold or anything like that so parents need not fear that I’m actually going to put an animal on them.”

Wild and Scary is ideal for families with children aged five years or older. For tickets call 01722 434434 or go to cityhallsalisbury.co.uk.