An extraordinary tale of nature’s power politics
It lifts the heart to see Sir David Attenborough, now 92, speeding across the dusty plains of Africa in a bone-jangling old Jeep, doing a piece to camera with no more effort than if he were chatting from a comfy armchair at home. (Sunday, BBC One) began with everyone’s favourite naturalist bouncing across the savannah, outlining the four-year filming schedule and vast distances travelled for this new series exploring “one of the most powerful forces in nature – family”. Could another epic wildlife extravaganza be in prospect?
Well, no, not even close. Though it was still a fabulous piece of wildlife film-making. The trouble was it didn’t seem to have much to do with family. I wouldn’t have spotted the theme if it hadn’t been for Attenborough’s introduction. This opener was a one-off tale of power-politics and the fight for kingship in a troop of chimpanzees living in the hottest and driest part of Senegal. The film, more Natural World in scale and ambition than Planet Earth, concentrated on the varying fortunes of just one chimpanzee, the group leader, a bristling alpha-male known as David (though Donald might have served better). David’s only concern in life was staying on top; the film’ sole focus was on his relationship with the other males, and the constant, often shockingly violent battle he faced to maintain the right to mate with the females, ahead of them.
All of which was entrancing and exceptionally well filmed. The scenes in which a gang of sexually frustrated rival males attacked their leader and almost killed him were extraordinary; as was his recovery. David’s recourse to “political” networking – building alliances with other, older males when he needed friends – was absolutely fascinating. Viewers of a philosophical bent will have found much to ponder in how strikingly narrow the gap between a great deal of chimpanzee and human behaviour seems to be.
But, again, how it fed into the larger theme of family was never elucidated. Little or no mention was made of David’s blood relationship to other group members, or theirs to one another. The social structures and other hierarchies within the group, while clearly complex, also went entirely unexplored. Undoubtedly David was a chimp who spent a great deal of time and effort investing in his bloodline. But as to family bonds, the genetics were about as far as it went.
Family, in a more recognisable way, is at the heart of Escape to the Château (Sunday, Channel 4). It’s only a couple of years since we first saw Dick Strawbridge and his artistically coiffured partner Angel Adoree head off to France to build a new life for themselves and their two children by transforming a crumbling French chateau into a luxurious wedding venue. Back then there was no electricity, you could stargaze through the roof and the only running water was in the moat that surrounded the 45-room money pit. But with a seemingly superhuman capacity for hard graft and design ingenuity, they have already completed the mammoth task of refurbishment. So much so that, at the outset of this fourth series, they were expanding into the gardens and building a new glamping site.
Less generous people might find this ostentatiously gregarious, infinitely competent and unquenchably optimistic pair a little hard to take at times. And you wonder if there isn’t a hidden battalion of helpers beavering away behind the scenes, so miraculous are the transformations they achieve against endlessly impossible deadlines.
In this episode they had to level and pave a large outdoor area, build a kitchen and bathroom block, install a wood-burning hot-tub and pizza oven, and erect, floor and decorate a vast glamping dome. All in six weeks before the guests arrived and while preparing to host a lavish three-day wedding. For most of us, just knotting the macramé hanging that Angel knocked out to fill a vacant wall space would have taken thrice as long.
But that’s the point. They’re selling a dream – not just the usual English fantasy of doing up a big house, but with a vision of bon vivant family life thrown in. Where the children sow wildflower meadows, the in-laws stop by for an Easter banquet and the grandparents live downstairs in an annex hewn from a cellar in just half an hour… The more impossible, exhausting and beyond our reach they make it look, the happier we are to stay idling on our sofas, letting them get on with it on our behalf.
Dynasties ★★★★ Escape to the Château ★★★