Attenborough series shows power of family
Sir David Attenborough has been doing himself out of a job. For the BBC’s latest blockbuster wildlife series Dynasties, he wanted the narration kept to a minimum – even though he is the narrator.
‘‘Unjustifiable anthropomorphism is the danger,’’ he says. ‘‘You have to be very careful when you’re writing it that every time you say an animal ‘is jealous’, you are absolutely sure there is scientific evidence to make sure what you’re saying is correct. And I think we did that here.’’
Dynasties is a new fivepart series starting next Sunday in Britain which, each week, takes one of the most celebrated and endangered animals on the planet and devotes an entire hour to following a single group in detail. It focuses on critical moments in the lives of the animals and their families: a chimpanzee leader (called David, coincidentally) battling for his position and his life on the edge of the Sahara; a dynasty of thousands of emperor penguins gathering on the frozen wastes of Antarctica; a powerful lioness, abandoned by her male protectors, shielding her family against the dangers of the African savannah; a feud between a mother and daughter painted wolf on the floodplains of Zimbabwe; and a tigress in the jungles of India attempting to raise her family under ever growing pressure from her rivals and humanity.
‘‘Never before have we presented a landmark series with such powerful storytelling – about families, leaders and heroes,’’ says executive producer Mike Gunton. ‘‘Never before has a landmark show offered the viewer the opportunity to follow the lives of animals in such detail, each fighting against overwhelming odds for their own survival and the future of their families. These are some of the most dramatic and intense stories of their kind ever told.’’
Obviously, the man in charge of the series is entitled to a little hyperbole, but Dynasties certainly represents a turn of the wheel from the BBC’s most recent Natural History series. Rather than being a sequence-led show, highlighting certain jawdropping behaviours from individual animals and then moving on, Dynasties tells longer stories over time. In a media age that values GIFable, must-see moments, Dynasties is slower and subtler.
‘‘The power of family is something that we never really have a chance to describe because it’s a complicated, more in-depth story that takes time to tell,’’ says Gunton. – Telegraph Group
‘Unjustifiable anthropomorphism is the danger.’’
Sir David Attenborough