Chicks flick a revelation
STARTING tonight we have yet another documentary series with the words “Secret Life Of…” in the title. This is becoming almost as silly as a few years back when, following the surprise success of Bake Off, it seemed every new programme was obliged to be “great” and ideally “British”, even if it was ultimately just a bunch of people making chiffon blouses or wonky plates.
This new affair, a three-parter, is called SECRET LIFE OF FARM ANIMALS (BBC4, 8pm) and despite my irritation with its title, I have to say (well, I don’t, but I’m about to in any case) that it’s rather cute.
“Have you ever stopped to wonder,” begins the voiceover man, “what’s really going on in the fields you pass? And cleverly anticipating the fact that I’m going to reply: “No, dear chap, I prefer to keep my eyes on the road to avoid ploughing into random pedestrians,” he then proceeds to fill us in on all sorts of fascinating stuff, albeit in a slightly drawn-out, do-please-get-to-thepoint kind of sense.
What we’re getting here isn’t so much a bunch of secrets, to be accurate, but details of these farm animals’ lives that dimwit townies such as myself simply won’t have been aware of.
To begin with, for example, it poses the question: “Sheep – are they as dim as we think?”
We realise at once that the answer is going to be no, because the alternative response (“Yes, of course they are, sheep are absolute idiots…”) probably wouldn’t make for much of a TV show.
But the specifics are nonetheless revealing. Well, they’re revealing to me at least. Contrary to what I may have thought, had I thought anything at all, it turns out that sheep are “highly social animals, showing extraordinary levels of empathy. Like us, they’re very good at recognising faces…” (there’s even an experiment to prove this, which is rather impressive) “…and boast gyroscopic eyeballs with 320-degree vision.”
I particularly love the use of the word “boast” here, conjuring up an image of these sheep strutting arrogantly around the farmyard, showing off to, say, the pigs, crying: “Ha! Betcha can’t do this, porky…”
Other revelations include the fact that unborn chicks hold conversations with their mothers.
When the mums cluck, the chicks wake up and respond by chirping, heralding their imminent hatching.
In other news, ducks can see three times as far as humans, cows have the same panoramic vision as sheep, and chickens, besides being able to move each eye independently, have three eyelids, including a transparent one for moisturising the eyeball. Elsewhere tonight, continuing the animal theme, we drop in on THE SUPERVET AT CHRISTMAS (C4, 8pm).
A preview of this episode wasn’t available, but I do know that Noel Fitzpatrick’s patients this time are three dogs – a labrador, a dalmatian and a crossbreed puppy – who each require complex treatment.
Do please let me know what happens. To be honest, I can’t bear to watch.