An Evening with Chris Packham

Chris Packham has always injected punk spirit into his actions, and tapped into the power of the people with his activism. He recently joined climate change activists to protest HS2.

Packham has praised young people for rising to the climate crisis challenge.

In an interview before his Harrogate appearance Chris said that the current political system, “isn’t one which is either fair, morally or ethically right, or in any way democratic, and I cherish all of those things; they are actually individually important to me. …I sincerely hope that we have young people coming through, who we will be able to elect, who are better decision makers then collectively those that we have locally, nationally and globally at the moment. That’s one of my great hopes of the future.”

An Evening with Chris Packham begins at 7pm at the Royal Hall.

The talks at the Royal Hall are hosted by Cause UK, with support from The Wild Watch, a project in Nidderdale AONB that is running the area’s biggest wildlife survey, and The Ecology Building Society.

Clair Challenor-Chadwick, MD of Cause UK, said: “We’ve launched a series of talks designed to throw the spotlight on good causes, and there’s no cause as pressing as the environment and climate crisis. We plan to host more ‘evening with’ events with some of the UK’s leading names in 2020 and beyond.”

Chris will be discussing his photography, work with wildlife and conservation, and his autobiography, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar. The memoir which was voted the UK’s ‘Favourite Nature Book’ inspired his TV documentary, Asperger’s and Me.

Ultimately, he wants to inspire people to fall in love with nature.

Chris said: “We’ve forgotten that we’re implicitly entwined with the natural world and our health, as an individual and as a species, is directly related to its health. That’s why we need to reconnect people with it.”

He promised Harrogate audiences are ‘going to get some stuff that is unconventional’: “In the sense that I speak very candidly and frankly about whatever I do, I don’t hold back. I’m a straight talking person and I know that people in Yorkshire are famed for being that, but perhaps I might trump them in terms of how candid that I am.”

Ultimately, Chris wants to inspire people to engage.

“We’re looking at enormous declines in species and habitats, all over the UK, but equally so in Yorkshire. I think it’s about self-empowerment. I hope people will feel more empowered when they leave to do things to solve the problem.”

The evening will also include a Q&A hosted by his Springwatch Unsprung presenter, Lindsey Chapman, followed by a book signing.

Also on 19 October at the Royal Hall, Steve Backshall will present ‘Voyages to Undiscovered Places’ at 3pm, followed by a book signing. Inspired by Steve’s current TV series, Expedition, his talk encompasses astonishing tales of narrow escapes and scrapes plus jaw dropping tales of close calls with near death as well as lessons learned from his extraordinary year.

Steve is passionate about encouraging his audiences to fall in love with the outdoors, nature and adventure.

Steve said: “You discover the world first from the things that are close to you. And also you discover how to take care of those places as well because they’re ours, they belong to us, their heritage is placed in our hands.”

Steve added: “Biodiversity, habitat loss, the plastic crisis – all of those things come together to spell an ‘eco-gedden’ if you like, which is the biggest problem facing us as a species and our planet.”

Steve Backshall – Voyages to Undiscovered Places, The Royal Hall, 19^th October 2019, 3pm followed by a book signing.

Chris Packham, The Royal Hall, 19^th October 2019, 7pm, with an after-show Q&A and book signing, 7pm. To book: harrogatetheatre.co.uk Box Office: 01423 502116

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