REVIEW

DAN SNOW - AN EVENING WITH THE HISTORY GUY

WEYMOUTH PAVILION

THIS celebration of history rattled along at breakneck speed, covering notable parts of our local past - from King George III bathing in Weymouth Bay through to bouncing bombs tested off Chesil Beach and Viking skeletons found on the Ridgeway.

Dan Snow, the self-styled 'history guy', was an animated knitwear-clad presence on the pavilion stage, who made the show feel like so much more than 'a talk'.

His anecdotes were engaging and often amusing - including the time he scaled a tall ship for a BBC documentary - much to the chagrin of the BBC's health and safety expert on board, who, fortunately had their back turned coping with nausea on the high seas.

We saw Snow, son of broadcaster Peter, in various action man-esque video clips - a sailing race against his father, white water rafting in Colorado and, entertainingly, struggling to be his usual gregarious self when emerging from the cockpit of an RAF fighter jet. Yes, motion sickness even affects go-getters like the history guy!

A particularly enjoyable part of the evening was seeing photos of Snow's childhood in which he was 'dragged along to' historical sites, old houses, castles and coastal walks that involve traversing firing ranges. We see how Peter Snow's influence played a massive part in Dan's career - getting the chance to co-present a show about the Battle of Britain alongside his father while still in his 20s.

Dan covered the ever-present nepotism issue by telling us 'I'm able to do what I do because of my father' - that the sheer love of history he inherited from Snow Sr yielded these opportunities alone.

It's a nice, cosy vision of democratic Britain that Snow presents and a theme that unfolds throughout the evening as we see photos of Snow meeting Chelsea pensioners, cosying up to veterans who 'would have shot their grandmother if she was on the German frontline' and a clip of him venturing boldly into part of Weymouth's Nothe Fort off limits to you and I for being structurally unsafe.

We step out of the bubble when he moves on to talk about the bleakness of the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving us with the wisdom of a woman he met there who told him 'history should record the very best of what we're capable of and the very worst.'

When proceedings slowed down a little and we had more insight, the evening was at its most immersive. Snow has put together a show that ticks all the boxes in terms of local and biographical content, but felt a little like a dash through history instead of a meaningful meander.

JOANNA DAVIS