Ian Waller enjoys an awesome and educational evening of environmental awareness
We weren’t sure what to expect from a live show from adventurer, explorer, naturalist and environmental campaigner, Steve Backshall. After all, our last few visits to The Forum in Bath were for music and comedy events.
Still, since our children where little ones, we’d all loved of his TV series, including Deadly 60, Expedition and Deadly Dinosaurs, providing an accessible and exciting view of the natural workd. And now here was the chance to see him live on stage in Bath…
And we couldn’t have been happier! What a fantastic show, full of fun, education, environmental insight, giant sharks, a huge squid and plenty of terrible dad jokes.
Ocean is a live show that every schoolchild should see – and be encouraged to take along their parents and carers too. Described as ‘a love letter to the most exciting environment on our planet – and a great way to learn more about what we need to do to save our seas,’ Ocean sees Steve take a packed audience to undersea kingdoms around the world, introducing the animals to be found and detailing the lives they lead and threats – largely from us humans – that they face.
Throughout there are stunts, exhibits and demonstrations, all backed up by clips of the remarkable filming for which Steve and his team are so well know, to bring everything to life. Along the way we’re introduced to the huge variety of sharks that still patrol the oceans, with an incredibly well read audience – the children, that is – inevitably answering Steve’s call to name the animal!
In fact, the children’s knowledge of the oceans and their animals was both hugely impressive and just great to see – perhaps they’re equipped to make a better job of looking after these beautiful domains than their parents seem to be doing.
Around us, school, scout and brownie groups were just loving the occasion, joining in with the Q&As, laughing along at the awful jokes and bristling with an energy that’s rarely seen in the classroom.
Throughout Steve Backshall is a perfect host – engaging, fun, knowledgable and inspirational. His on-stage antics are backed up with stunning video clips of his ocean adventures around the globe, getting very close to some of the most magnificent beasts you’ll ever see and encouraging the children in the audience that this is something they can do too.
I can’t praise Steve Backshall Ocean highly enough. For the children in the audience, it provided education in a way that they absolutely loved, hanging on to every word and able to display their own passion for the subject. For us oldies, it was a call to arms, not just to help save our oceans, but to recognise the energy and passion in our children that will hopefully mean that they don’t make the same mistakes that we’re making.
To find out more about Steve Backshall’s Ocean tour, go to https://www.stevebackshall.com/liveshows
For more information about upcoming shows at The Forum Bath, go to https://www.bathforum.co.uk/