Recommended Television Programmes

[Richard Tarleton]

A most interesting reply, for which many thanks. One wonders what it was that motivated some people to become scientists and hard-core environmentalists in the first place!

Monbiot of course is neither, he's a journalist with (as Attenborough points out) a column to write each week. He (DA) also mentioned that GM did a spell at the BBC Nat Hist unit, but didn't do very well. Ouch.

[oddoneout]

He studied zoology so in the words of a famous advert "you got an ology, you're a scientist".....

[oddoneout]

A most interesting reply, for which many thanks. One wonders what it was that motivated some people to become scientists and hard-core environmentalists in the first place!

Interest in the subject for the first and dedication to a cause for the second I imagine. Neither requires people skills in order to be successful.

[jayne lee wilson]

George Monbiot is... more like a Cassandra, really, and we do need those too....

[Richard Tarleton]

George Monbiot is... more like a Cassandra, really, and we do need those too....

We do, we do - though the trouble with Cassandra was, nobody believed her. And as I hinted above, I think he does his thing brilliantly. He's right, about a great deal. But his thing is not inspiring a vast audience with a sense of wonder about the natural world, and drawing attention to what we're in danger of losing or are losing in a way that doesn't simply put people off. Attacking Attenborough, and in such extreme terms, borders on the unprofessional. Another environmentalist who tells it like it is, is Chris Packham - but he also does the engagement bit, in his own unique style. I think I'd rather spend a few hours in the field with Packham (or Attenborough, of course, though his knees are no longer the best, I gather ) than Monbiot.

[Serial_Apologist]

Monbiot of course is neither, he's a journalist with (as Attenborough points out) a column to write each week. He (DA) also mentioned that GM did a spell at the BBC Nat Hist unit, but didn't do very well. Ouch.

From reading details previously unknown by me in his Wiki entry, he's been out and about too!

[Richard Tarleton]

Good grief, yes, I didn't know the half of it

[Serial_Apologist]

Good grief, yes, I didn't know the half of it

[Jonathan]

We've recently finished watching the first series of "Lucifer", we really like the sly humour in it. Waiting to see the next two series...
Any other fans here?

[LMcD]

It may be a question of balance - sound balance I mean - and degree. The emotionally manipulative soundtrack in the Attenborough films seems to me to dominate, whereas I'm watching and listening to the current repeats of the New Zealand series on BBC2 with pleasure: not least because I could listen to Sam Neill read the phone book for hours, one of my favourite voices (and actors)... I just checked back, and indeed there is a music soundtrack but it's less intrusive (I hadn't noticed it and couldn't remember there was one at all).

I couldn't agree more! I've no idea whether the current David Attenborough series on BBC1 is equally afflicted by this unpleasantly intrusive musical 'background', 'accompaniment' (call it what you will), but the trailers haven't persuaded me to tune in.
While on the subject of film and TV music:
Last night we watched Mike Leigh's marvellous 'Secrets and Lies'. The sparseness of such music as there was made it all the more effective on the rare occasions when it was deployed, and the images and the admirable cast were perfectly capable of conveying the not inconsiderable emotional drama.
The fact that something is technically possible doesn't mean that it has to be used at every opportunity.

[LMcD]

We've just watched a programme on BBC2 about wildlife on Honshu. There was very mercifully little 'background' music, the producer having wisely left it to the pictures, the natural soundtrack and the commentator to show us all we need to know.

[teamsaint]

Landscape artist of the year on the dreaded Sky.

Got me hooked.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've enjoyed the recent series of Beck that's just ended on BBC4 - but Beck himself seems to be doing a Taggart: in each of the four stories, he's had about twelve lines of dialogue - and eight of those have involved his odd neighbour!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Landscape artist of the year on the dreaded Sky.
Got me hooked.

Ah - when it comes to landscapes with dread-ful skies, Turner's pretty good:

[teamsaint]

Ah - when it comes to landscapes with dread-ful skies, Turner's pretty good:

Yes indeedy.
Indeedy yes.

i think he got knocked out in the earlier rounds though.