Ross Kemp is bringing the Extreme World to NZ

Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, the Congo... documentary maker Ross Kemp's passport reads like a cheat sheet of where not to go if you want to have a nice time.

As part of his award-winning documentary series Extreme World, Kemp routinely visits the most dangerous and life-threatening places you can ever hope to not find yourself.

For the most part, we're all good down here in little ol' New Zealand, so this February he will bring the extreme world to us with his new live show Extreme Tales Live on Stage.

"You'll get an insight into how the films are made," Kemp says, when asked what to expect. "Some very funny things happen, some very sad things happen. I'll talk about the shades... this idea is that everything isn't as simple as black and white."

It's a remarkable thing to say seeing as Kemp has spent time with truly evil people - warlords, sex traffickers, rogue militia, slavers, pirates...

"I think there's always that shade between. I don't believe that the people that I meet are born truly evil. I've met people with mental issues that are quite evil, but the majority of people that I've met, I don't want to say they're victims of circumstance, but certainly circumstances played a heavy part in the situations and determined the people that they've become."

Considering he's seen the worst that humanity has to offer - at one point he says, "Being up to your ankles in blood is an experience that, unless you're a surgeon, shouldn't happen to you... if you can help it." - it's an amazing perspective to hold on to.

The upcoming shows in Auckland and Christchurch won't be the first time he's visited to Aotearoa.

Kemp was here back in 2005, "in my infancy of documentary making,", filming his first very first documentary series Ross Kemp on Gangs. This visit will be more pleasant then?

"I don't know," he says. "I didn't have a particularly awful time when I came to meet the Mongrel Mob. There was a member of the Mongrel Mob I used to go and sit in his house and have dinner with his wife. I got to know his kids. I got to see more than just the face that's presented in the tabloids."

He credits it to the fact that when he goes somewhere he and his crew spend serious time living with the people.

"We parachute in, we try to get to the backbone of the story but then we leave. I've always had the motto that no film is worth someone's life."

That said, he's had more than a few hairy moments during his travels. He recounts being pinned down by an ISIS sniper and being hit with shrapnel from an RPG hitting a wall behind him.

"When the lead starts flying it's every man for himself," he laughs, before referencing the character he played on the Brit soap Eastenders a lifetime ago.

"No one's going to jump in front of a bullet because you were Grant Mitchell once."

By constantly putting himself into these life or death situations I wonder if he might be addicted to the adrenaline rush.

"There is a rush to it, " he admits, "But I don't think I'm addicted to it. But if you've got rounds going the left of your shoulder and rounds going over the right of your shoulder and you're buried in some field outside a village there's an element of euphoria when you get out of there because you've survived a near death experience."

Kemp hosts Extreme World Live on Stage at the Logan Campbell Centre on February 17. Tickets available from theticketfairy.com