When I was 10 or 11 I received a letter from David Attenborough. I had all his books and a typo in one misidentified the carnivorous dinosaur Deinonychus as the plant-eating Hypsilophodont. What was an annoying child to do but reach out to a titan of natural history broadcasting, taking him to task for his error?
The missive somehow reached Attenborough and he wrote back. Though the letter was subsequently lost in a house move, I still recall his handwriting. It was looping and voluminous and full of enthusiasm (he apologised for the mistake and essentially blamed it on the editors).
That same zest crackles through Wild Isles (BBC One, 7pm), the now 96-year-old’s survey of nature through Ireland and the UK. Yes, we get a mention. Or rather we do and we don’t, with the opening episode confining itself to Britain (with one passing nod to the Giant’s Causeway) yet full of talk of the UK and Ireland and “our” wildlife – and point taken up by the BBC press office, which gushes about “our British Isles”.
Still all quibbles melt away in the face of Attenborough’s passion. He is the Voice of God if God was interested in foxes and the mating habits of fruit flies. And with Wild Isles he makes the encouraging argument that nature in this part of the world is, if you know where to look, as stunning as anywhere.
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Attenborough illustrates that point by swimming with the Orca whales of Shetland (not literally – though, in his young days he’d probably have given it a go). There is a segment in which Golden Eagles, once on the brink of extinction, ride the air currents like flying sharks. We also learn all about “chalk rivers” – a wildlife habitat in which Britain is world leader.
Even if you couldn’t tell a chalk river from a cheese board, Attenborough’s narration – at once stern and cosy – draws you in. Long before “slow TV” was a concept, he had mastered the genre. Switch on Wild Isles and, as the sea birds flap and foxes frolic, feel your worries evaporate.
Or at least you will if you work outside the BBC. If you work inside the BBC you may have been caught up on the drama over Wild Isle’s supposed missing “sixth episode”. According to the Guardian: “The BBC has decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press”
With the Gary Lineker Tweeting controversy rumbling on, the timing could not be worse. It says something about the wildfire nature of Britain’s culture wars that not even natural history is exempt. David Attenborough has no doubt seen a lot in his 96 years. He has surely never seen anything like this.
