Easter Special
Mammals Easter Day 7.00pm BBC1
From cheetahs to chimps, the BBC’s new wildlife series shows how mammals are having to adapt to survive the greatest threat of all – humans
When David Attenborough’s prodigious canon of work is finally audited, there are countless moments that will be lifted from the archives to illustrate his genius. That encounter with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda, or those with the crabs of Christmas Island and the wading chimps of the Republic of Congo. But for sheer unfiltered joy, tethered to his innate gift for dramatic storytelling, none eclipses – for me at least – his encounter with a blue whale for The Life of Mammals, more than two decades ago.
Clinging to the side of a fast-moving boat and blinking through the sea spray, Attenborough’s face crumples in childlike wonder as the largest animal to have ever lived surfaces just a few feet away from him. At which point, all of his broadcasting skills are distilled into one, utterly memorable, 30-second long piece to camera: “I can see its tail, just under my boat here. And it’s coming up, it’s coming up and, there, the blue whale…”
He remarked afterwards, “It is something I will never forget.”
Fast-forward 22 years and Attenborough, who will be 98 on 8 May, is again at the helm of another series on mammals. This time he’s not on the high seas but, for the opening sequence at least, securely berthed at his local cinema in Richmond, Surrey.
As you would expect, he sets the scene impeccably: “Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid was on a direct collision course with the Earth. Its impact was to dramatically change the course of life on our planet, leading to a mass extinction that wiped out three quarters of all animal life. Out of the darkness that followed emerged a group that went on to dominate the world. That group is the mammals. Highly adaptable and remarkably widespread, they are now found in every ocean and on every continent, in the air and underground.”
The series, he declares, will “reveal the secrets behind their success and the challenges they now face in a world dominated by the most successful mammal of all – us.”
Adaptability is in the DNA of many of the most breathtaking sequences featured in the six-part series. Whether you raise a glass to the ingenuity of the animals in question or mourn the fact that they have had to adapt at all will depend on how full – or empty – your glass is. For instance: otters dodging traffic as they negotiate the highways of Singapore island; sea lions being terrorised by domestic dogs at a Chilean fish market (see over the page); or elephants grazing o
