Planet Earth II - David Attenborough BBC1 8-9pm Sunday 6/11/2016 (1 Viewer)

Steve Arlow · Nov 29, 2016

andyadcock said:
I thought exactly the same....

A

Constant sound of Bee-eaters in Poldark and saw a program recently from the Scillies where, on every island visited, an non UK species could be heard singing in the background, had a distinctly American vibe to it.

As usual the filming was excellent and the locust swarm reminded me of the swarms I've seen in Australia and Israel a few years back though they were in the millions and not billions as per the show.

Still the music is as annoying as ever, probably worst soundtrack given to any nature program, and was at one point drowning out Davids commentary, give me rattling Cactus Wrens in the background

Steve Arlow · Nov 29, 2016

Was also impressed with the Bat versus Scorpion sequence, will need to get a UV torch now for when I go back there next year to 'highlight' the night monsters...

Andy Adcock · Nov 29, 2016

Steve Arlow said:
Was also impressed with the Bat versus Scorpion sequence, will need to get a UV torch now for when I go back there next year to 'highlight' the night monsters...

Can highly reccomend this Steve, provides the right kind of light level. We've had it for a few years and it's great, especially for the price.

http://hqrp.com/led-lighting/uv-fla...ultra-violet-blacklight-torch-for-canada.html

I always say, if you're even slightly bothered by Scorpions, don't use one of these lights, they are often EVERYWHERE!

Andy

Melanie · Dec 1, 2016

It should be noted that there is also a tie-in book to this tv series by Stephen Moss.

Melanie · Dec 5, 2016

Amazing images of the mating Paradise widows in the last episode. The DVD/BD with all six episodes is released today.

Peewit · Dec 6, 2016

Melanie said:
Amazing images of the mating Paradise widows in the last episode. The DVD/BD with all six episodes is released today.

Good information Melanie :gh:

JTweedie · Dec 10, 2016

Finally caught up with all episodes apart from the cities one which I'll be watching later. It's great to see birds take centre stage in so many sequences; in the past they were very much in the background and rarely mentioned. The hummingbird footage was incredible as was the footage of the bee-eaters hunting just in front of the elephant.

A couple of times Attenborough mentioned the temperature in Fahrenheit - since we generally use Celsius in everyday speech in the UK, the script was probably written with an American audience in mind which is unfortunate.

I've enjoyed the series, but I don't think it's quite had the wow factor that the original Planet Earth had. I think most of the big series are now of similar scale to that series, eg Frozen Planet, The Hunt or Life Story or even Shark (only three episodes but that was utterly fascinating) so we're becoming spoiled.

A big omission from Planet Earth II was the oceans. There's a new series about the oceans in production so perhaps that explains it...

King Edward · Dec 10, 2016

JTweedie said:
A couple of times Attenborough mentioned the temperature in Fahrenheit - since we generally use Celsius in everyday speech in the UK, the script was probably written with an American audience in mind which is unfortunate.

Similarly he gave weights in pounds rather than kilos, again I think for the American audience. Irritating for a British production.

colincurry · Dec 11, 2016

King Edward said:
Similarly he gave weights in pounds rather than kilos, again I think for the American audience. Irritating for a British production.

Not so for those Britons of sufficient seniority who automatically still think Imperial; I know the arguments but ...................

Colin

aeshna5 · Dec 11, 2016

colincurry said:
Not so for those Britons of sufficient seniority who automatically still think Imperial; I know the arguments but ...................

Colin

Agree!

King Edward · Dec 11, 2016

colincurry said:
Not so for those Britons of sufficient seniority who automatically still think Imperial; I know the arguments but ...................

Colin

I may be wrong, but I think British imperial weights (e.g. of people) are typically given in stones/pounds rather than just pounds which I see as an Americanism. My bathroom scales, for instance, give units in stones and kilos only - if you want to know your weight in pounds you need to work it out.

I don't know if the BBC has an official policy on units, but I did find a Telegraph article from 2003 complaining about the use of the metric system: Even in Rome, BBC turns its back on the imperial It contains this quote:

A spokesman for the BBC's natural history unit, which is responsible for the programme, said: "We try to use metric in all our materials and programmes. We will, on occasion, give an example of a conversion to help people who can't take that on board."

Telephoto Paul · Dec 11, 2016

JTweedie said:
A couple of times Attenborough mentioned the temperature in Fahrenheit - since we generally use Celsius in everyday speech in the UK, the script was probably written with an American audience in mind which is unfortunate.

Am I the only one who thinks in Celsius for cold weather and Fahrenheit for summer?

davercox · Dec 12, 2016

Watched the Cities episode last night. Some fascinating stuff in there: very interesting to hear about the places with the highest concentrations anywhere of leopards and Peregrines.

My only grouse against this whole series is that, yet again, there is a heavy concentration on animals fighting / attacking each other. I suppose they think that's what Joe Public wants to see ...

So I was apprehensive when the hyena sequence began, but needlessly, it was quite brilliant. And I enjoyed the Bowerbird sequence, though there was nothing very new there.

King Edward · Dec 12, 2016

Personally I find animals attacking each other to be much more interesting than animals just sitting around doing nothing in particular. The night vision footage of the Mumbai leopards was excellent, but it would have been rather underwhelming if they had merely shown HD quality film of the animals having a nap followed by a stretch and a yawn rather than stalking and carrying off piglets.

Similar the Peregrine is a species whose entire existence is built around its ability to capture other birds in high speed pursuit - not showing that would be to do both it and the viewers a complete injustice.

Thinking about the high concentrations of these two species in urban areas, what Attenborough didn't say was that in common with the cities' human populations these top predators are being sustained by a much larger ecological footprint with large amounts of food imported from elsewhere (i.e. feeding their prey base of pigeons, pigs & dogs).

gw4aurora · Dec 12, 2016

Shame about some of the young turtles suffering from pilot error and no volunteers with buckets to scoop them up and put them in the sea.

Melanie · Dec 12, 2016

Could It be that the hyena sequence in the Cities episode was staged?

JTweedie · Dec 12, 2016

gw4aurora said:
Shame about some of the young turtles suffering from pilot error and no volunteers with buckets to scoop them up and put them in the sea.

They tweeted afterwards that the production team did collect them and place them in the sea. It could lead to the arguments about whether they should intervene or not, but I think in this case there is justification as the turtles are only going the wrong way due to our lights. I believe there are volunteer groups who do this too.

JTweedie · Dec 12, 2016

Melanie said:
Could It be that the hyena sequence in the Cities episode was staged?

No doubt they came across this behaviour during research and arranged to film them as a result. In that sense, yes it was staged, but I think they were only filming behaviour that has been going on for hundreds of years. The animals were interacting with the people on their own terms, and in a way we also got a study in human behaviour too - saw it with the monkeys in India and you see it everyday when people feed pigeons.

Bubbs · Dec 12, 2016

Melanie said:
Could It be that the hyena sequence in the Cities episode was staged?

I think you will find that a great deal of these episodes suffered from being staged. I found most of it cringeworthy and full of artistic licence. I think they used to call it camera tricks!

jurek · Dec 13, 2016

Loved the film.

Melanie said:
Could It be that the hyena sequence in the Cities episode was staged?

They didn't even show the most incredible things! Hyenas in Harar have now their own Wikipedia site and a blog. I guess leopards in Mumbai will follow as the next tourist attraction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD_F3IsZYeQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE8aOc28kYc
http://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/caught-on-camera-dog-chases-away-leopard-from-house-in-mumbai-775451

BTW, who knows where to see urban smooth-coated otters in Singapore so well as in the film?

Planet Earth II - David Attenborough BBC1 8-9pm Sunday 6/11/2016 (1 Viewer)

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