NATURALIST Nick Baker will be taking the audience on a journey to some of the harshest and most extreme locations in the work when he appears at the Alban Arena at 7.30pm next Tuesday evening, April 10.

Presenter of Channel Five’s Weird Creatures, Nick will be ranging from the high elevations of the Andes and the baggy frogs of Lake Titicaca to the darkest, dingiest depths of Slovenia’s caves to meet the Olm, possibly the source of the original dragon.

He will be telling his favourite stories about discovering, meeting and filming some of his favourite Weird Creatures and revealing some of the ‘behind the scenes’ trials and tribulations.

He will also explain why these animals appear weird to us and how their strange looks and habits are actually born of an evolutionary need to tackle some unique habitats and situations.

Tickets are available from the Arena box office on 01727 844488 or online at www.alban-arena.co.uk

Classical ballet takes centre stage at The Arena at 2.30pm next Saturday, April 14, when the Vienna Festival Ballet Company returns to present Swan Lake.

One of the greatest and most popular ballets of all time, Swan Lake offers imaginative costumes and sets projecting colour and vitality.

The Vienna Festival Ballet was founded by artistic director Peter Mallek in 1980 and aims to provide the great classical ballets to theatres nationwide for audiences of all ages.

n The Arena film season continues next Wednesday and Thursday, April 11 and 12, with The Descendants starring Oscar-nominated George Clooney. With his wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie) on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King (Clooney) takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront the young real estate broker who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

It is being shown at 1.30pm on both days and also at 7.30pm on Wednesday.

Ghost story The Woman in Black is being screened at 7.30pm next Thursday and Friday, April 12 and 13, with a 1.30pm matinee on Friday.

A young lawyer (Daniel Radcliffe), struggling with work after the death of his wife, is sent to a remote village to settle the estate of a deceased eccentric woman who owns an English manor.

The village residents want him to leave as they are trying to conceal a deadly secret. But he refuses, and soon discovers that the house of his client is haunted by the vengeful ghost of a woman dressed in black.