Review: Nick Baker, The Place, Oakengates

The TV presenter and naturalist kept his audience enthralled at Oakengates Theatre @ The Place last night with tales of his encounters with the weird and wonderful.

Nick has had an 18-year career discovering some of nature's strangest creatures and it has turned into something of a love affair that has taken him all over the world.

He admits that he has a fascination for the 'evolutionary underdog', the ugly slimy, slightly repulsive creatures that most nature shows shun.

Our journey into his world of weird creatures began with the pink fairy armadillo, which he became obsessed with while visiting the Natural History Museum as an eight-year-old boy.

To film his TV show, the long-running Weird Creatures, he went to Argentina to try to find the creature that lives most of its life underground. His enthusiasm was captivating as he used slides and film to take us on his trek to find the armadillo.

But while his anecdote was amusing, and his search ultimately fruitless, the tale did have a serious side. It became clear how few of them there were and they have subsequently been put on the endangered list.

The evening was very informative and educational but it was also funny. And it was his tales of terror, involving cute and cuddly creatures, that raised the biggest laughs, especially about the pygmy anteater that attacked him cutting his thumb to the bone.

'Never trust a fluffy' was his motto and his tales certainly make that good advice.

Judith Sanders