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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steve Arlow" data-source="post: 1732838" data-attributes="member: 52292">Watched the Wild Places of Essex and it was, well, rubbish. It was titled as the Wild Places of Essex but showed very little of any wild places of Essex or its Wildlife. There were close up views of a captive Peregrine, how else would those tracking shots of it be possible. The camera work was shoddy, many of the moving subjects often out of frame with the camera man either trying to keep up or was moving ahead of it whilst other shots such, as the deer were poorly, framed. It just seemed very amateur and poorly put together, editing was all over the place, especially with the Barn Owl, and not what would be expected from the BBC Wildlife Unit. It was almost, that'll do, its only Essex.There were lingering shots on many things that didn't need to be lingered on (autumn leaves on a tree for a couple of minutes at a time for example) and the presenter was awful. Some of the commentary was just painful, like 'The Knots seemingly moving in and out of our dimension when in flight, what!' and the repeating of the same phase within minutes was also pointless and irritating. Even the wife hated it and walked out of the room after just 20minutes to do something else. There were to many lingering shots of him, such as sat in an old wooden cabin for about 10minutes, walking across a snow covered ploughed field, one side of the frame to the other and even climbing a dead tree. Are these Wild Places of Essex, nope.Visting Jaywick and its delapidated buildings was nothing to do with any Wild Places either, just a run down holiday destination but again a fair portion of the program was given over to it.At one point I watched with the sound muted because of the drivel this guy was coming out with, mention of used Condoms littering Epping Forest, was that really needed, nope, did it help convey Epping as Wild and Wildlife full place, nope.There are several places that are Wild(ish) in Essex but these were mostly ignored and the wildlife mostly forgotten about in favour of one mans view. This was not a Natural World program but rather a self endulgent vehicle for the presenter to plug his book, he is after all a writer rather than a wildlife presenter (which showed) and if he writes the same drivel he was spouting in the program then thats a book to miss. Being a long time birder in Essex, 30years, there is so much more that could have been done to actually present a picture of real wildplaces in the county than this. Those from outside of the county who rarely, if ever, visit would be none the wiser.Poor photography of Brent Geese, Bearded Tits that were hardly ever in frame, Seals which are easy subjects. Where were the areas such as 'Wild' West Canvey that play host to some of the UK's rarest insects, where were the shots of the Thames Estuary and its miriad of wildfowl and waders in winter, where the shots of the many woodland inhabitants. The Dengie was hardly covered and this has to be one of the more remoate areas of the county and surely would be clased as a 'wild place'.Essex is generally devoid of a great deal of wildlife and real wild areas so making a film about it was never going to be easy but making a film with virtually nothing interesting in it has got to be unique. I think I could have done better with my Camcorder, as could many others.From reading the posts above there are of course those that liked the program and the style of commentary however for me I think it sumed it up nicely, go to Norfolk instead.</blockquote>

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