An ode to British ingenuity and one unoriginal sheep
Karen Walker was in her hotel room after a wedding when a fax came through announcing a birth. “She has a white face and furry legs. Both doing fine,” it read. “What the girl on reception must have thought… what kind of baby has furry legs?” said Walker.
Dolly: The Sheep That Changed the World (BBC Two) explained how a team based in a sleepy Scottish village created the first cloned mammal from an adult cell, and how Dolly became an unlikely superstar.
The programme explained the science but kept it simple, with the contributors adding colour. The plan was to breed genetically engineered sheep as “drug factories”, with the end goal of one day eliminating conditions such as motor neurone disease and Parkinson’s. And why sheep? “It’s because they were cheap. A sheep costs the same as a pint of beer or a bottle of posh fizzy water,” said Roger Highfield, who covered the story for the Telegraph.
The team, who worked at the Roslin Institute, painted an entertaining picture of their working conditions: Walker carrying the specimens in her bra to keep them warm, her fellow embryologist Bill Ritchie chosen for the painstaking nuclear transfer work because he had “a steady hand and the
patience of a saint”. John Bracken, the animal anaesthetist, slept in the unit overnight in case Dolly’s mother went into labour.
There isn’t space to acknowledge all the scientists here, but special mention must go to Ian Wilmut, who led the research, and Keith Campbell, the maverick cell biologist whose “crazy theory” became a reality.
And then there was Dolly herself. We could pause here to accuse the team of anthropomorphising her – posing for the world’s press, aware that she was a star – but they knew her better than anyone. Certainly better than the animal rights campaigner who broke into Dolly’s barn to liberate her from the research facility, but failed when they were unable to pick her out from the flock.
Ethics were touched on only briefly. If these animals can be used to find successful treatments for lifethreatening human conditions, then the work is justified, the programme said. Walker herself was born with spina bifida; Wilmut was later diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
As for Dolly: she’s stuffed and mounted in the National Museum of Scotland. “She’s this piece of cutting edge technology in sheep’s clothing. She’s just a superstar,” said the museum director. But as the programme showed, the Roslin team were the real stars.
There are many things in Welcome to Earth, Disney+’s new natural history series, which let you know this is a very American programme. It is presented by the actor Will Smith, and here he is narrating some underwater footage: “Seems like down in Fraggle Rock, anemones have to travel to survive. Just because those dudes look slower than a parked car, don’t mean they ain’t moving.”
It’s a series which can’t decide quite what it’s supposed to be. It shows us wonders of the world – killer whales sending shock waves through the water in a Norwegian fjord; a crocodile picking off wildebeest on the Serengeti; the rumblings of an active volcano on Vanuatu – in beautiful high definition. It’s the kind of thing you’ve seen in plenty of wildlife documentaries, but no less stunning for that.
But then there is Smith, who treats this as a personal odyssey. “It’s not about the world, it’s about discovering myself,” he explains. This could have been supremely irritating – a pampered Hollywood star getting to complete his bucket list on Disney’s dime – were it not for Smith’s immense likeability. When he tells us he’s scared of water, shortly before heading 3,000 feet down to the ocean floor in a tiny submersible, he sounds genuine. That he manages to keep his nerves at bay is admirable.
The programme pairs Smith with various explorers, all of them engaging in their own right. They include Dwayne Fields, the British polar expeditionist, and Albert Lin, an American scientist so coolly capable that I was half way through the programme before I noticed he has a prosthetic leg.
There is a disjointed feel to all of this, because the show (produced by acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky) zips across continents in the space of each episode, some bits featuring Smith and others not. But when the star confesses that he was a frightened, bullied child and hopes to inspire others to conquer their fears, it’s heartening stuff. You just need a Hollywood budget to recreate this particular set of adventures.
Dolly: The Sheep That Changed the World ★★★★ Welcome to Earth ★★★