WHEN Benedict Allen does a job, he does it properly. The daring British explorer, who will be offering a thrilling alternative to The Antiques Roadshow at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton this Sunday, has immersed himself in alien cultures more completely than any other explorer.

Not content simply to don a pair of khaki shorts and examine strange tribal customs from the safety of some nearby shrubbery, Allen dives in feet-first - hence the fact that he has been tattoed by Indonesian islanders, tucked into a steaming plate of dog in the Amazon and taken hallucinogenic drugs.

"My approach to exploration is to sink myself into people who are intimately involved in their environment and learn from them," says Allen, whose heroic quests have taken him to some of the remotest corners of the earth, including Siberia, Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.

Nuffield Theatre, Southampton, October 27. Performance: 7.30pm. Tickets: from £11. Box office: 023 8067 1771.