It Just Hit Me.

[Steel Tiger]

Last night I was watching David Attenborough's latest series, Life in Cold Blood, when I realised that when this man is gone no one will present the natural world in such a magnificent and grand fashion anymore. There are plenty of nature presenters around but they all seem to be gimic-driven.

Since 1979 we have been treated to David going off into the wild every two or three years for our entertainment and education. But Life in Cold Blood is the last of the Life series which started in 1993. He has said he is going to do a programme about Darwin and evolution this year.

Its going to be a very strange world when there is no Attenborough programme to watch.

 

[exile]

Last night I was watching David Attenborough's latest series, Life in Cold Blood, when I realised that when this man is gone no one will present the natural world in such a magnificent and grand fashion anymore. There are plenty of nature presenters around but they all seem to be gimic-driven.

Since 1979 we have been treated to David going off into the wild every two or three years for our entertainment and education. But Life in Cold Blood is the last of the Life series which started in 1993. He has said he is going to do a programme about Darwin and evolution this year.

Its going to be a very strange world when there is no Attenborough programme to watch.

Attenborough is one of a very small group of people who have a passion for revealing the magnificence of nature to the rest of us, in ways that we just can't ignore. Like Carl Sagan and Stephen Jay Gould, he seems to have done the impossible and grasped the basic structure of the natural world both broadly and deeply, and shares with them the ability to articulate that vision in a civilized, welcoming sort of way. We've lost those two, but we still have DA, and yes, it will be a great loss when he is no longer there to open one of those magic doors for us into the great brilliant universe....

 

[grydth]

Looking for something worthwhile on television has become something akin to treasure hunting.

Still, we cannot be the only ones to see this.... so I expect at least a couple of promising new folks to come along and brighten the desert.

 

[exile]

Looking for something worthwhile on television has become something akin to treasure hunting.

Still, we cannot be the only ones to see this.... so I expect at least a couple of promising new folks to come along and brighten the desert.

I think that's a good way to look at it: when a need arises, someone up to the task will eventually come along to meet that need. It's just that there just aren't all that many people around who can fill the shoes of the folks I mentioned—they don't come along that often.

It's sort of the same way I felt when Ellis Peters died, and I realized there would be no more Cadfael novels....

 

[Steel Tiger]

Looking for something worthwhile on television has become something akin to treasure hunting.

Still, we cannot be the only ones to see this.... so I expect at least a couple of promising new folks to come along and brighten the desert.

I hope you are right. The problem I am seeing with television generally is that the corporations are looking for maximum profit for minimum outlay. and you know where that leads - 'reality' television. Its way cheaper to havea bunch of twonks sitting around in a house than send a naturalist into the field for a few days (or weeks as it actually is). And then there is the appeal to the lowest common denominator. Its a little disturbing to think that the common denominator is so low.

There is also a staggering lack of imagination is television these days. They keep churning out the same things with the brightness turned up or down or the colours changed a bit. That is one of the great joys of Attenborough's work, it is new and compelling. He is going to leave a big hole at the BBC without a doubt.

Hopefully someone will come along who can encourage the television corporations to spend some money on something new, different, and interesting.

 

[Davidp]

I will never forget the show when DA trailed a blue whale in a rubber boat ..the whale breached the surface right in front of him ... he was absolutely beside himself ... fantastic

 

[Jade Tigress]

I hope you are right. The problem I am seeing with television generally is that the corporations are looking for maximum profit for minimum outlay. and you know where that leads - 'reality' television. Its way cheaper to havea bunch of twonks sitting around in a house than send a naturalist into the field for a few days (or weeks as it actually is). And then there is the appeal to the lowest common denominator. Its a little disturbing to think that the common denominator is so low.

There is also a staggering lack of imagination is television these days. They keep churning out the same things with the brightness turned up or down or the colours changed a bit. That is one of the great joys of Attenborough's work, it is new and compelling. He is going to leave a big hole at the BBC without a doubt.

Hopefully someone will come along who can encourage the television corporations to spend some money on something new, different, and interesting.

So true. With a few exceptions, television these days is crap and it's not likely to change. As you said, it costs too much money to produce. Better to go for the cheap, easy to produce reality shows and rehashed sitcoms. Sadly, people are getting so used to the mindless dredge they're forgetting what a gift shows like Nature and David Attenborough are.

 

[Sukerkin]

I concur wholeheartedly with the views shared above wherein we have grown up in a period with a wonderful Old Guard of talent when it comes to certain aspects of television documentary making.

Like Bob said, we've had Sagan, Attenborough, Moore (Patrick, astronomer) ... I've seen noone of their calibre coming along behind them. They had/have that rare mixture of knowledge, charisma and teaching ability that only seems to come through weight of experience and caring about the subject rather than the paycheck.

 

[arnisador]

Alan Alda was OK, but I agree that this is a higher league we're talking about!