Seventh heaven with the indefatigable Sir David
Seven Worlds, One Planet BBC One
How much longer can Sir David Attenborough keep this up? The indefatigable 93-year-old naturalist returned for another landmark series in Seven Worlds, One Planet (BBC One, Sunday). This seven-parter does what it says on the titular tin, exploring a different continent each episode. Was it enough to differentiate it from Attenborough’s previous productions? On the basis of this opening episode, it will do very nicely. It felt weightier and less environmentally finger-waggy than his recent Netflix series, Our Planet. The eco-message was still there but took a back seat to visual majesty. This was more in the vein of last year’s Dynasties: thrillingly wild and thematically strong.
Attenborough welcomed viewers while striding along a windswept beach, and wearing a padded red parka. Thereafter, he settled for narration duties – perhaps he is slowing down after all – and the animal action began in a blaze of high-definition handsomeness.
As if we weren’t feeling chilly enough already on a dark October evening, we began in the frozen wilderness of Antarctica. Turn the heating up a notch please, darling. Actually, don’t. Sir David’s telling us off about climate change again. We were flung straight into the wonders of nature as a Weddell seal gave birth to an adorably fluffy pup and shielded the vulnerable youngster from a blizzard. There was a frightful moment when it was left alone on the ice floe and we thought the pup had not survived – until it answered its mother’s call with a tremulous bleat and they were reunited. A nation sighed with relief. The series will be full of such tense moments of life-and-death jeopardy. Another came when an albatross chick was blown from its nest. Its father did not recognise it by sight, sound or smell, so refused to help it, staring sternly down its beak like a forbidding Victorian patriarch until the chick managed to scramble back up and they bonded again. And it’s certainly no picnic being a penguin. First, a gentoo penguin swam at 22mph with four orcas on its tail. The plucky penguin swerved, dodged and doubled back but stood little chance so outnumbered. He was eventually gobbled up, like his chocolate biscuit namesake. Look away now, children/vegans/ snowflakes – this was nature red in tooth and fin. The Dynasties crew caused controversy by rescuing stranded penguins but there were no such interventions here.
The danger wasn’t over yet, as penguin chicks ran the gauntlet of leopard seals pursuing them across the slush like a sub-zero remake of Jaws. Thankfully, they survived this time. Such wildlife chase sequences – as we saw when Planet Earth II’S racing snakes vs baby iguanas sequence went viral and won a Bafta – beat anything Hollywood has to offer. As we have come to take for granted but shouldn’t, it was all gloriously filmed by the BBC’S Natural History Unit, the serene beauty of the camerawork belying the months of painstaking graft in hostile conditions it takes to capture these shots.
Cameras took us intimately close to the animals, then pulled overhead for drone shots, then even farther to satellites showing the Earth’s curvature. They took us into the air and under the sea, soaring and sweeping, accompanied by Han Zimmer’s suitably epic score (not sure about that Disney-esque closing tune, though) and Attenborough’s whispery narration – a sound as reassuringly familiar as our own breathing.
This was wildlife documentary as high-stakes drama. We’re in for an autumnal treat over the next six weeks.