PENGUINS AREN’T P-P-PEOPLE
Penguins aren’t people, so why pretend that they are?
The latest episode of Dynasties on BBC1 featured the emperor penguins of the Antarctic — and was a triumph in many wonderful ways.
From the opening shots of the sea icing over, to the blue icebergs clinking in the bay, and the sole penguin making his way across the icy tundra, it was a thrill a minute.
The landscape, the plight of the birds, the horror of the wintry weather — marvellous stuff.
Yet there were uncomfortable moments when it became more of a soap-opera icecapade than a serious nature programme making intelligent points.
For a start, encouraging viewers to fantasise that mummy and daddy penguin are sad because baby egg penguin has died is taking anthropomorphism too far.
Then there was the hushed, portentous voiceover by sir David Attenborough, talking of penguin love (‘the process of finding the perfect partner cannot be hurried’) and their domestic dilemmas.
‘This mother had to make a terrible choice: to save herself, she has abandoned her chick,’ he whispered.
The penguin in question ambled up an ice gully without a backwards glance, leaving junior to freeze to death accompanied by the sweep of super-sad orchestral music.
it was like sophie’s Choice — with flippers.
But this creeping tendency in nature programmes to stir up emotions and to entertain more than educate is pernicious.
Like everyone else, i love penguins, but they are wild creatures, not characters in a particularly heart-rending episode of southenders. Let’s stop this guano now.