Life on Earth in Your Living Room
Wildlife TV programmes, once the preserve of the dedicated couch potato, are now a video connoisseur item for the environmentally aware. According to Sir David Attenborough: “Life on Earth was the kickstart natural history programming needed.” Interview: Pat Thomas
Wildlife, natural history, or more fashionably these days, green programmes, have long been favourites with the British viewing public. As awareness of our planet and the huge variety of life it sustains, its delicate ecosystem and its weather systems and temperatures (which a few degrees either way would mean no more life on earth) grows, so does our appetite for films of this type.
Today the natural history video has moved from passive entertainment (“when there’s nothing else on”) to a positive choice on the television and in the video store. It has also moved from something we buy for our kids on the basis that it’s educational to something we buy for ourselves, not only to inform but to entertain and in some ways to reassure. The fact that there is some rain forest left, that the gorilla might re-populate itself given time and space gives us all a bit of hope.The vital difference is that natural history is alive. It’s in the making every day and all around us.
One of the great purveyors of this type of film is the BBC. From their Bristol studios [hey have produced such classic series as Life on Earth, The Living Planet, The Living Isles and most recently Supersense. Synonymous with wildlife and the BBC is Sir David Attenborough, the man who has taken us around the world dozens of times in search of the fantastic, the beautiful and the sometimes tragic.
While the public has only just awakened to the potentials in wildlife films, according to Attenborough, the BBC really got serious in 1977 when Life on Earth was being planned.
“I think the great advantage that Life on Earth had stems from the BBC taking natural history seriously. We were able to say we will make 13 one-hour programmes on this serious subject, a survey of the animal kingdom, because the BBC said it would fund it properly. In the normal course of things you could not go to Australia for, say, a two-minute segment on frilled lizards, for a programme about reptiles by themselves. But we were able to afford it because we knew we would also go there for the first programmes about corals, in order to do the Barrier Reef and for bower birds, for a programme on birds and so on.”
Not surprisingly the video version of Life on Earth is a first choice for many. This edited version of the original 13-pan series is specially narrated by Sir David and features an “evolutionary calendar” specially devised for the video. Eleven years down the line Life on Earth remains a remarkable achievement in natural history filming, a vivid, dramatic survey of animal life and its evolution.
The flagship of the range, however, must be The Living Planet Parts 1 and 2. This special video takes us in Part 1 from desert to frozen wasteland to jungle and explores how plant and animal life has managed to survive in such extreme conditions. In Part 2 it looks at oceans, rivers and estuaries and the life they support before ending with a very strong look at how we have abused so much of what nature has taken millions of years to build.
According to Sir David The Living Planet also had its own natural evolution: “When we first planned the Lift On Earth series, we decided to look at the animal kingdom, family by family. In chat way we would be able to trace the history of life and show how each kind of creature has its own potential. But that scheme had one disadvantage. It meant that we were seldom able to show how one type of animal in its everyday life is dependent upon others, or how in a particular environment all living organisms, animal and plant, form one closely integrated community.”
Also available from the BBC are The Living Isles a unique celebration of the natural history of Britain and Ireland. Narrated by Julian Pettifer it traces the 10,000 years of changing landscape and remarkable wildlife to emerge on this tiny island.
The Kingdom Of The Ice Bear explores the world of the Arctic where the polar bear reigns as king. Other animals featured include the narwhal, the white beluga, the caribou and the snowy owl. The original series was three years in the making and still stands out as one of the most exciting explorations of this still largely untouched wilderness.
Closer to home is the Guide To British Garden Birds with David Attenborough. Described as a video guide this programme combines BBC Bristol’s expertise with the RSPB’s own resources using film, sound, split-screen technology and an easy to search index to help identify the 40 or so birds which are likely to visit any British garden.
Technologically speaking, Supersets Parts 112 must be one of the most remarkable wildlife films ever made. Narrated by Andrew Sachs, this series pioneered techniques of looking at the world from an animal’s point of view. Birds were filmed from a model aircraft, lions were tracked by a specially developed camera buggy disguised as a small animal. X-ray, infra-red and ultra violet were brought in from the medical world in order to give the viewer a real sense of an animal’s perspective.
Featured arc the edited version of all six programmes plus The Making of Supersense – a behind the scenes look at what went in to filming the series.
Another big name in wildlife programmes a while back was Survival, produced by Anglia Television. In the 1970s these programmes were always beautifully made and narrated by some very well-known people indeed. Currently on release arc Gorilla, featuring the voice of David Niven, and Tiger, Tiger narrated by Kenneth Moore. It should also be worth noting that the price of these videos includes a donation to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
On a world-wide scale the National Geographic remains the standard point of reference for anyone with an interest in wildlife and natural history. Their timely release Rain Forest features some truly remarkable film of the environment which is home to nearly half of all the animal species on earth. Contrast this with the spectacle of man’s destruction of what we now know to be the “Earth’s lungs” and you have a very powerful film indeed.
While you’re busy catching up on all these videos, spare a thought for our intrepid explorer Sir David Attenborough. He’s currently embroiled in a new project, already two and half years in the making, tentatively titled Trials Of Life, all about animal behaviour.
“It’s an extraordinarily ambitious series to do and as far as I’m concerned it’s the third of a trio starting with Life On Earth going through The Living Planet and now Trials Of Life which will have completed a world-wide survey of the animal kingdom first of all in evolutionary terms, secondly in ecological terms and now in ethological (behavioural) terms. If we manage to complete that I’ll be a very happy man.”
The talk of a trilogy brings to mind films like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. And in a way Sir David is die Steven Spielberg of natural history filming. If you’ve never drought of wildlife films as having ail the pace and excitement, drama and humour of a feature film, think again. It’s all there, and it’s all real life.
- The publication date of this article is a bit fuzzy, but likely to be circa 1990. From 1989-1991 I was a contributing editor, then editor of Insight, a customer magazine produced by Woolworth’s. It was a full colour 48-page glossy music title that featured star interviews, news, competitions and reviews. Insight was available free in store and was read by more than a million customers each month.
