Dynasties gave us a family feud akin to Game of Thrones
Afierce mother-daughter rivalry lay at the heart of last night’s Dynasties (BBC One), which eschewed wildlife filmmakers’ obsession with the more photogenic/famous members of the animal kingdom and introduced us to a little-known but fascinating species, the painted wolf.
“Once known as Cape hunting dogs,” said David Attenborough, stood on the bank of the Zambezi River, “these are among Africa’s most endangered predators.” That, he explained, was largely down to human encroachment on the vast territories that these large packs of creatures require to survive. But for the viewer, initially at least, a more immediate explanation appeared to be their willingness to wipe each other out.
The rivals in this instance were two alpha-females – a mother known as Tait and her eldest daughter Blacktip – that at some earlier stage had split into leading two separate packs, in two neighbouring territories. Blacktip’s pack was twice the size of Tait’s and she needed more space. But the only extra land available was her mother’s, which she promptly invaded and, following a bloody battle, drove Tait and her pack out of their home, and across the river into the “lion pridelands” – a dangerous world where death lurked in every shadow.
If this all sounds a tad Game of Thrones, it was, all the way down to the ominously throbbing brass-section soundtrack. And it only got more so as, months later, just one sniff of her mother’s scent was enough to set Blacktip off on a mad dash into unknown territory to settle the feud once and for all.
In true dynastic-saga fashion, this proved utterly disastrous. Out of her depth, Blacktip and her pack were set upon by hyenas at night, ambushed by crocodiles and attacked by marauding lions in one of the most extraordinary sequences of the series so far. A leader punished by fate for overreaching herself, she was forced to retreat, tail between her legs, abandoning all she had previously won and leaving the door open for Tait, or her successors, to return.
Two years in the making, this was a superb piece of filmmaking, offering much more than just the headline moments, with lots of detail too about the social hierarchy of these matriarchal animals and their threatened future. As Attenborough noted, painted wolves “may lack the nobility” of Africa’s sexier big beasts, but they certainly exert a fascination all their own.
The fascination of firearms was at the heart of Gun No 6 (BBC Two), a deeply disturbing documentary tracking the criminal history of an illegal handgun that has been used in no less than 11 shootings in Britain to date. What’s worse, the gun has never been traced – the police can only identify it from markings on bullet cases left at crime scenes.
This handgun’s history of horror unfolded, first, via some truly upsetting CCTV footage of a Post Office robbery in Fairfield, Worcestershire in 2009, in which Craig Hodson-walker, the postmaster’s 18-year-old son, was shot dead. The robbers also shot and wounded his father, Ken, who gave an affecting interview about the incident.
Director James Newton then tracked back six years to run through the 10 previous shootings to which police linked the gun, including two further murders, slowly coming back – via forensics, reconstructions and witness testimony – full circle to the Post Office murder, the last time it is known to have been used. Three men were convicted of that crime but the weapon was never recovered. Given that the best part of 10 years has passed since then, one of the questions oddly left hanging by this film, never addressed even by way of speculation, was what could have happened to it?
The non-appearance of its central focus was only half of what made this documentary unusual. The other half was Newton’s invitation to a group of five ex-offenders, all convicted of firearms offences, to contribute their thoughts on gun crime. It was certainly brave of them to talk so honestly about their past on camera. Their insights into the lure of guns, the power they confer in criminal circles, and how their possession twists perception and emotion had a tangible credibility. But there were also moments when they lapsed into the decidedly creepy, and having these men recreate violent scenes felt both unnecessary and inappropriate.
In the end, despite its absence, Gun No 6’s terrible legacy spoke for itself, and through the voices of those whose lives it has ruined.