Sir David Attenborough Explores Unseen Wonders From the Amphibian World

By DAVID BELCHER

The latest in filming technology captured various TV firsts for the final chapter of Sir David Attenborough’s epic natural history overview, Life in Cold Blood (Monday, BBC One, 9pm). For the five- part series, the renowned BBC Natural History Unit’s specialised cameras – from pin-hole to macro and probe to thermal-imaging – filmed hitherto unseen behaviour in amphibians and reptiles.

Keen observers of nature, "red in tooth and claw", will thus be able to enjoy such spectacles as a reproductive orgy of sea turtles involving six rivals attacking a mating pair; a rattlesnake hunting its unsuspecting prey; and the caecilians, worm-like amphibians whose young feast on their skin.

Rather more happily, there’s footage of a mother caiman leading her brood to safety, a dwarf chameleon giving birth and some Australian marsupial frog tadpoles climbing into their male parents’ pouches so that pater marsupial frogs can hatch out froglets.

Of course there’s also contact between humans and animals. During filming of the first episode, there was a close encounter on the Galapagos. While capturing thermal images of marine iguanas, proceedings were interrupted by a young sea lion erupting from the sea and landing a few feet from the venerable Sir David himself.

It then shot off up the beach. The crew went back to business when, 30 seconds later, the reason for the pup’s dramatic arrival became apparent. A fully adult – and highly dangerous – bull sea lion burst from the sea like a missile and landed in the same spot, staring at presenter and crew only a few feet away.

Fortunately the cameraman, Paul Stewart, had spent time with sea lions and understood their psychology, standing tall and facing the seal down. The bluff worked; it turned and slipped back into the sea.

Continuing its fight against retro crime is the follow-up to Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes (BBC One, Thursday, 9pm), which kicks off eight years after the Life on Mars finale. It’s 1981: the year of Chuck ‘n’ Di’s wedding, the Rubik’s cube, the ZX Spectrum, Bucks Fizz and the Brixton riots.

Sexist DCI Gene Hunt has left Manchester for the Met. The first two series of Life on Mars offered precious little information on Hunt’s past and personal life, making him a bit of an enigma. The introduction of a female DI, Alex Drake (played by Keeley Hawes – see page 14), meant a new dynamic could be created without comparisons to the good cop-bad cop buddy relationship between Hunt and John Simm’s Sam Tyler. Like Tyler, Drake has apparently travelled through time from the present day, awaking in a brothel with no recollection of how she got there.

"Gene has never come across a woman like Alex before and she rocks his world, " explains the show’s executive producer, Jane Featherstone. "How is it possible to work with someone so incredibly confident and attractive, not to mention posh and from London, and a woman? Through Alex’s presence at the station we see a different side to Gene – a more complex, gentler side, a man with dreams, hopes and fears."

But it’s not all change. Hunt will still offer his take on the ghosts of England’s recent past. "We thought we’d bring him to London where his northern views would come into sharp conflict with the soft southern ponces he finds there, " adds producer Beth Willis. "And he takes his A-team of Ray Carling and Chris Skelton with him."

Nevertheless, the makers of Life on Mars took the opportunity to show how changes in policing since 1973 impacted on the cocksure Hunt. Writer and co-creator Ashley Pharaoh explains: "The research we did indicated that the police knew the Scarman Report – on the Brixton riots – was on its way, and they knew it wasn’t going to be good news so the threat of that hangs over the whole series.

"A specific era is coming to an end. There’s a slight sense of melancholy to Gene at times – he misses the north and the old days. But he’s a fighter. He refuses to give up."

Originally published by Newsquest Media Group.

(c) 2008 Herald, The; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.