Damn you Attenborough!!

A little while back I had one of my increasingly frequent "things aren't what they used to be" moans about the sort of stuff that gets commissioned on TV, and the sort of stuff that doesn't get enough exposure. In particular I praised a David Attenborough documentary about Charles Darwin

The BBC are currently showing a new Attenborough-led series - Nature's Great Events.

It's simply superb, but while I will continue to argue that we should have two dozen such series (not to mention the likes of Horizon, Arena, and countless others) for every banal celebrity (or, worse still, wannabe-celebrity but don't wannabe putting any effort in) "reality" show, I occasionally find myself wishing I wasn't watching it.

I've just watched last Sunday's 'episode' - following the trials of a Lion pride awaiting the return of the Wildebeest herds to their particular area of the Serengeti. To suggest that I found it hard to watch at times would be, frankly, an understatement. The soap and celebrity-self-congratulatory-backslapping-show fans can argue all they want about the 'emotion' and 'humanity' of their preferred drivel - but anyone who watched as six-month-old Lion cubs were left for dead by a pride that couldn't afford to wait for them will know that there is simply no comparison.

Of course there will be an element of dramatic licence in the way the story was presented - it wouldn't be possible to show the whole thing in an hour long program, and of course the editing was very carefully done to present a documentary that would illicit just such an emotional response from the viewer. That's what these programs are about though, and they successfully present stories and imagery more powerful than anything that the likes of a Big Brother or an Eastenders will ever do.

I imagine, though, that making such incredible material must come with a price. I may have found it hard to watch at times, but imagine being the cameraman sat for hours filming as a young Lion dies of starvation - just a mile from it's family, and almost within touching distance of you and your Landrover (a Landrover loaded up with food and water).

What must the temptation be like to try and intervene? I'm not suggesting, for one minute, that such film crews are on the same level as - let's say - an air-sea rescue team, but it still must take some special kind of 'guts' to sit and watch events like that unfold without getting involved.

So, BBC, more more more... but be prepared for the fact that I might not watch it!