Life [DVD]

I sometimes despair of the BBC under current management with there huge salaries and 70p car parking claims! That said I can forgive Mark Thompson almost anything when it comes to squeezing every last drop of wisdom and learning from one of the greatest Britons of this century Sir David Attenborough. The words "national treasure" is overused but what we are witnessing is the development of the most remarkable "database" of natural history which will last through the ages but which also comes with a serious warning about our impact on the climate. Sir David and his partners the brilliant BBC natural history unit based at Bristol have generated one of the great bodies of research work of the past hundred years and a miraculous advert for intelligent television and quality programming.

You also sometime recoil when you consider what a wasted medium television has become. Bruce Springsteen once sung of "57 channels and nothing on" and surf that remote on any day and you sometimes long for the days of 4 firecely competitive channels who had to major on quality and not the lowest denominator. Quite how we have managed to debase the genre in this way is worrying and astounding. Yet before we lose faith there is always oasis of quality and in the case of Attenborough's programmes the standard never dips.

In this current programme "Life" there is so many highlights it is difficult to single them out. But one thinks of the filming of the tense and pitiful portrayal of the first footage of komodo dragons hunting a water buffalo and stalking the animal for weeks as the poison they have injected through bites disable the creature. The tricks of Dolphins to catch mullets by stirring up ocean mud and the killer whales coming to shore to catch seals are equally memorable. Although the stars series are the three Kenyan cheetahs.

Another review on this page suggests that "Life" has a quality of De ja vu and has been done better in the series "Blue Planet" or "Planet Earth". A churlish argument in my view since much of Attenborough's work is complimentary and while I accept that the two aforementioned series are magisterial, "Life" stands in its own right as a thrilling addition to his oeuvre. This is the only programme that my children will actively leave various X Boxes and Play stations to sit down and watch. They will also not complain if it clashes with some celebrity nonsense or trivia on another channel. Attenborough's programmes challenge, stimulate, provoke and most importantly make you think. They are also populist, intelligent, hugely watchable and thus viewed by millions across the the world. He has done broadcasting a massive service and we all owe him the most profound debt.

I am watching the series each week & bought the dvd the day it was released. There are so many wonderful scenes it's all but impossible to pick out just one. But if I had to choose a favourite, it would have to be those young meerkats falling asleep standing up.

'Life' is filled with such gems, those clever dolphins, that selfless octopus, the stalk-eyed flies, the elephant family, that incredibly cute little shrew, that young ibex outwitting a predator it's never seen before, the cheetahs working together to bring down an ostritch, etc, etc, etc,.

This is definately one for the dvd shelf!

This DVD set is so wonderful,I bought it as a present and my boyfriend loves it we have watched it time and time again, alittle piece of the world .