Ice Age mammoths going head-to-head with sabre-toothed big cats! Giant dinosaurs squaring up against each other. Snake venom turning a celebrity’s blood into a snotty mess! These are just some of the jaw-dropping moments you’ll experience as part of Steve Backshall’s Deadly Live! Tour.
The naturalist, explorer and presenter has been up close and personal with the world’s most dangerous creatures and experienced unimaginable pain in the course of his work, but he admits to feeling just a bit frightened about the idea of entertaining thousands of people in person.
An ambitious extension of his wildly popular Deadly 60 series on CBBC, which involves him being filmed during close encounters with animals that can kill, Deadly Live! is the kind of show that’ll appeal to everyone from excited young kids to experienced palaeontologists.
“Doing this big grand arena tour is an uplifting, exciting, challenging and frankly terrifying thing,” says the multi-Bafta Award-winning Backshall. “It’s such a weird thing to bounce from being out in the field, living in the jungle or sleeping under a bit of leaky tarpaulin to standing on a stage in front of thousands of people and having to entertain them, but I can’t wait.”
Backshall and his team are going all-out to make the shows as exciting as possible, bar bringing the actual animals and insects on tour – something that would be ethically questionable.
“My concept is that we go from the genesis of life on Earth all the way to the present day, and we introduce deadly animals as they crop up in evolutionary history and analyse them.”
Although the whole thing is educational, nobody need worry about children finding it a dry or dull experience. “It’s a rollercoaster ride of science and nonsense and ludicrousness all rolled into one,” says Backshall. “It’s tremendous fun. It rattles along at an insane pace, but manages to have some very factual content within it. I’m really proud of it.”
One of the ways he and his team are bringing the ideas to life is bringing on stage a range of true-to-size animatronic models – some of which will be in battle with each other.
“They’re not based on Jurassic Park models of what a dinosaur would look like, but on the absolute cutting-edge of modern science tools,” says Backshall.
One of his favourite parts of the show involves theropods in combat. “They even shower me from head to toe in dinosaur faeces,” he smiles. “You’ve got to have a few poo and fart jokes if you’re going to keep the kids happy, right?”
As well as looking at enormous beings, such as the nine-tonne orca and a sauropod (the biggest dinosaurs, which were about the size of a fire engine) and what comes out of their digestive tracts, the show examines how some of the tiniest creatures work.
“We’ll be breaking down the way that small stuff works as well – down to the ants, the wasps, the spiders and the scorpions, putting it all into its context and talking about when they were first found,” says Backshall, who’s also promising bangs, explosions, circus tricks and loads of interactivity too.
He’ll give audience members a chance to respond to questions, and a few lucky children will get to share their thoughts as he does the rounds with a microphone. “Anyone who works with kids will know this: if you just stand and talk to them – even if what you’re saying is thrilling and interesting – you’re eventually going to lose them. The best thing to do is to make it a dialogue by asking them a question. Often very young kids will know the most obscure details about dinosaurs or birds of prey, for example, and you can see the adults sat next to them going, ‘How the hell did you know that? That’s absolutely insane.’”
In addition to stunts such as fires, whips and throwing knives (“Youngsters love the possibility of something going wrong!”), Backshall will do a demonstration involving snake venom. Mixing some of his own blood with haemotoxins in a lab environment, he’ll show how quickly the two liquids combine to form a nasty snotty substance.
Deadly 60 has been broadcast since 2009, and one of its appeals, he argues, is the free style of filming, which means crew members are seen on screen as part of the experience, rather than being edited out. And the same goes for mistakes: including little mess-ups helps the audience at home feel more involved and less suspicious about the possibility of being tricked.
Naturally, the job has not been without its dangers, and Backshall’s list of injuries is eye-watering. He’s had the tip of his finger bitten off by a piranha (it’s pretty much grown back now), and needed ten stitches after a crocodile bit his left calf. He’s also had three different shark bites, none of which did him much harm – thanks in part to wearing chainmail. “Another bite was from a nursing shark so it was more like a wicked love bite than an actual bite,” he jokes.
He’s been stung by scorpions, bitten by spiders, had leeches and parasite infestations and even had malaria a couple of times. But the most pain inflicted by a creature? The sting of bullet ants. As part of an initiation ceremony with the Sateré-Mawé tribe in Brazil, he put on a pair of gloves with hundreds of the insects woven into them.
“It was completely overwhelming,” he recalls. “There was nothing in my world apart from pain. It was hands down the most painful thing that has ever happened to me. The really intense bit lasted for maybe three hours, but it still hurt for a couple of days after that.”
Although he loves sharing details about how animals protect themselves and tackle their prey, he’s keen for people to understand that the vast majority will do anything to avoid confrontation with a human.
“The thing that is most likely to lead to a negative interaction with an animal is it being frightened, running away or panicking,” he says. “Any of those signs set you apart as being a potential target and that can trigger predatory impulses. And the flip side of that is that if you can be calm and confident, then you are not prey, and animals will just ignore you or avoid you.”
Backshall, who got to week nine on Strictly Come Dancing in 2014, has recently set up his own YouTube channel (@SteveBackshallOfficial), but in the early days of his career had one of the best job titles a wildlife enthusiast could hope for.
He’d been working as a guidebook writer, and came up with an idea for a programme, which involved him filming himself stranded in a Colombian jungle for six weeks. After he sold the film to National Geographic, they handed him a company credit card and the role of “adventurer in residence, which remains the greatest job title I’ve ever had,” he smiles.
It led to him working at the BBC, travelling all over the world, experiencing wonders (and risks) he might never have dreamt of while growing up surrounded by rescue animals in a smallholding in Surrey.
But has he got what it takes to keep thousands of audience members on the edge of their seats as part of his live tour? You’ll just have to come along to find out.
Deadly Live! is Heading to Brighton
Deadly Live! with Steve Backshall is back for autumn 2026! Following the smash hit 2025 tour, the thrilling supersized live entertainment adventure is returning this October half term for 11 more live shows at some of the UK’s biggest venues. Deadly Live! is an action-packed, edge-of-your-seat thrilling experience hosted by BAFTA award-winning wildlife presenter and adventurer, Steve Backshall. The tour is based on the hugely popular CBBC show Deadly, produced by the award-winning BBC Studios Natural History Unit for BBC iPlayer and CBBC.
Deadly Live! with Steve Backshall 2026 kicks off at the Nottingham Motorpoint Arena on Thursday 22 October. Tickets are on sale now from DeadlyLiveTour.com.
Get ready to join Steve Backshall on a heart-pounding unforgettable journey, as he tracks some of the world’s most formidable predators, from big cats and birds of prey to Dinomania dinosaurs, snakes, and many more. With daring stunts, mind-blowing experiments and cutting-edge science, this thrilling live show takes audiences across land, sky and sea in a truly unique wildlife spectacle.
Steve Backshall said: “I’m thrilled to be bringing Deadly Live! back for 2026. I was blown away by the response from audiences last year – both the adults and the kids! And I’m delighted that we will be taking the show to many parts of the country that we couldn’t get to last time. We’ve got some amazing stunts and incredible experiments planned for this supersized show for all the family. Join me this autumn half term as we explore once again animals from 600 million years ago right through to modern day.”
Series seven of Deadly 60 launched on CBBC on 27 March and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer, along with all other series.
Deadly Live! is produced by Phil and Nigel McIntyre by arrangement with JSM Events and BBC Studios.
DEADLY LIVE! WITH STEVE BACKSHALL – 2026 UK TOUR
| 22 October, 2pm | Nottingham Motorpoint Arena |
| 23 October, 5pm | Sheffield Utilita Arena |
| 24 October, 2pm | Liverpool M&S Bank Arena |
| 25 October, 2pm | Leeds First Direct Bank Arena |
| 26 October, 2pm | Birmingham Utilita Arena |
| 27 October, 2pm | London OVO Arena Wembley |
| 28 October, 2pm | Cardiff Utilita Arena |
| 29 October, 2pm | Brighton Centre |
| 30 October, 2pm | Bournemouth International Centre |
| 31 October, 2pm | Stockton Globe |
| 1 November, 2pm | Blackpool Opera House |
Image credit: Graham Macfarlane
