Deadly 40

If you have a nine year old or you're really into nature documentaries you'll know exactly who Steve Backshall is. Otherwise you might be wondering who the Dickens he is. He's best known as the presenter of programmes such as Deadly 60 where he tries to get foolishly close to the world's most deadly animals and explain just why these creatures are so fearsome that no one in their right mind should go as close to them as he currently is. Picture Steve Irwin but British, more muscly and... well, alive. 

If you want to bump into Stevie B. then your best bet is to either hang around near a pit of venomous snakes in a tropical rainforest or work somewhere he might visit when he needs to promote his latest show. I'm not a fan of slithering fanged critters but thankfully I fall into the other camp so today after more than a year of hoping that he'd pop in, my timing was right and I got to pop the question.

No, not that question. Contrary to popular belief whilst I appreciate his manly form he's not really my cup of tea. My question to him was a much more random one. I wanted to know whether he went to Collingwood School.

I grew up in the town of Camberley in Surrey. We have three secondary schools. Clearly I went to the superior one: Tomlinscote. Then there's Collingwood whose alumni includes the 80s boy band Bros. And then there's another school that's not worth mentioning! 

I'm not sure why, but I read somewhere that Steve was another Collingwood alumni and so I wanted to ask him whether he did indeed attend my rival school. As soon as we had finished filming I was ushered in to meet the big guy. So is he in the same category as Matt and Luke Goss (and the other bloke)? You bet your bottle topped shoes he is! Steve confirmed that he did attend there and that he's a year older than I am (I'm happy to say that he thought I was much younger). He made the typical comments about my yellow socks (This was part of my school uniform... I don't wear them now) but I must say that I was just relieved that he did indeed go to the school as the conversation would have been somewhat shorter and more awkward if he'd replied "Collingwhat?". 

So here's the all important pic to show you Steve and myself - lets hope that he hasn't just ticked off another of his Deadly 60 after meeting me!