The Blue Planet

[turbo33]

Due to the appalling weather over the weekend, I hunkered down and caught up with a few episodes of The Blue Planet.

How different it is to Country File. The harsh reality of what happens in nature for survival. One of the episodes was about Killer Whales running down and separating a whale calf before going in for the kill. The Racing Snake episode was remarkable.

What is strange is there doesn't ever seem to be any controversy with this graphic depiction of reality. Yet, good old Country File seems to avoid any story of reality and stopping short of the full picture. I know CF has been done to death on here, rightly so in my opinion. But I don't see the gain of the BBC for the way CF is produced. The Blue Planet must attract a bigger audience surely, which would indicate to me that en masse, people are not as frightened of reality as the producers might think?

 

[chrisjpainter]

MUST.NOT.RANT!

However...

Sadly, it all comes down to how the media (BBC in this case) portrays wildlife abroad as opposed to here. The flavour of programmes on international wildlife is educational, whereas here it's emotive. Here, we're fobbed off time and again with how we respond to wildlife on an emotional level - countryfile, Autumn/Spring/Winter/Strachanwatch get filled with soft piano music, artists and questions about how it all makes us feeeel. So, it has to be all happy and wondrous and softly lit in a world where nothing EVER dies (except when those naughty gamekeepers kill those majestic eagles and dazzling hen harriers). Whereas abroad - where the wild things are - we need educating, so we get to see nature being natural. Maybe it's because as a nature we don't truly respect our own wildlife, or it's because it's assumed we know it all already. With countryfile the focus has gone from those who live and work in the country, to those who play in it, so again it's all about feeling and emotion and escapism. Farming, rural economics and stuff dying just sort of...gets in the way of all that.

The result is though, fewer and fewer people know anything about this country's wildlife or where their own food comes from - and those that do invariably aren't given enough of a voice for fear they might actually tell the truth! it'd be terrible if we happened to actually learn something about how uncontrolled fox/corvid predation has catastrophic effects on lapwing breeding success, wouldn't it?

I just wish one time the BBC would release the full might of its Natural History department on British wildlife and do it with the same quality, the same education focus - and the same budget! And returned countryfile to what it actually used to be

 

Edited April 3, 2018 by chrisjpainter

[JohnfromUK]

I don't think I have ever been disappointed in any programme David Attenborough has made.  He knows how to tell things in an interesting way, and the photography is sensational.  The Blue Planet is excellent.  It is hard to believe that when he retires (he is over 90) they will find a replacement even a fraction as good.  I have been lucky enough to see him lecture and read in person, and he's every bit as good without the magic of TV.

There have been a few good UK based ones, notably one on the wildlife over a year in Scottish Highlands - narrated by Ewan MacGregor - that was an ITV showing.

Edited April 3, 2018 by JohnfromUK

[Mice!]

Three very good posts, don't think the BBC will ever manage to replace David Attenborough, they will just have to show replays of old programs.

[old man]

8 hours ago, chrisjpainter said:

MUST.NOT.RANT!

However...

Sadly, it all comes down to how the media (BBC in this case) portrays wildlife abroad as opposed to here. The flavour of programmes on international wildlife is educational, whereas here it's emotive. Here, we're fobbed off time and again with how we respond to wildlife on an emotional level - countryfile, Autumn/Spring/Winter/Strachanwatch get filled with soft piano music, artists and questions about how it all makes us feeeel. So, it has to be all happy and wondrous and softly lit in a world where nothing EVER dies (except when those naughty gamekeepers kill those majestic eagles and dazzling hen harriers). Whereas abroad - where the wild things are - we need educating, so we get to see nature being natural. Maybe it's because as a nature we don't truly respect our own wildlife, or it's because it's assumed we know it all already. With countryfile the focus has gone from those who live and work in the country, to those who play in it, so again it's all about feeling and emotion and escapism. Farming, rural economics and stuff dying just sort of...gets in the way of all that.

The result is though, fewer and fewer people know anything about this country's wildlife or where their own food comes from - and those that do invariably aren't given enough of a voice for fear they might actually tell the truth! it'd be terrible if we happened to actually learn something about how uncontrolled fox/corvid predation has catastrophic effects on lapwing breeding success, wouldn't it?

I just wish one time the BBC would release the full might of its Natural History department on British wildlife and do it with the same quality, the same education focus - and the same budget! And returned countryfile to what it actually used to be

 

The correct analysis IMO.

CF needs a trip into the history section?

FWIW I saw an ITV wildlife program a few days ago and it was equal to the BBC offerings.

Edited April 3, 2018 by old man

[Pistol p]

I believe blue planet was produced and filmed with the end product being distributed to other world wide networks albeit with different commentators. Unfortunately for them they don’t get to listen to David Attenborough.