Narrated (rather than fronted or developed) by Sir David, this series features an episode on the Congo which is as bewitching-spellbinding as it is very misleading.
I mean this in the most positive way I can mean it, but nevertheless.
While we see a number of "pinup" animal and plant species presented (forest hogs, forest buffalo, elephants, chimps, gorillas, rock pythons, skimmers, picathartes), it is tropical ecosystem ecology on all scales that is very rightly to the fore here (unlike worries about the future of the Congo forest at the hands of those who would exploit it out of existence - which definitely take a back seat).
This is then the first fiction being perpetrated here.
The second is bigger, since - despite the constant discomforts of unbearable weather, leeches, and stinging and biting insects, as well as the presence of major threats to life in the form of deadly viruses known (like Ebola and HIV) or unknown, somebody has with skilful camerawork (including by drone) made this region look like the magnificiently beautiful area it indeed is, whether that be in the "Heart of Africa" (yes Joseph Conrad did write about this place), or the incredible bits along the Atlantic coast.
This is quite alright, as the Congo Basin forest is indeed beautiful - and utterly amazing - but it is NOT a place for (the vast majority of) us, even as we should everyday thank whoever for the fact that something so majestic and wondrous has come into existence on our uniquely-blessed planet.
The main function this episode of this series should then be playing is tell us to agitate, write (and if necessary put our money where our mouths are) to ensure that that wonderful forest remains in place, even as it is alien to us and always will be, and should be.
I mean this in the most positive way I can mean it, but nevertheless.
While we see a number of "pinup" animal and plant species presented (forest hogs, forest buffalo, elephants, chimps, gorillas, rock pythons, skimmers, picathartes), it is tropical ecosystem ecology on all scales that is very rightly to the fore here (unlike worries about the future of the Congo forest at the hands of those who would exploit it out of existence - which definitely take a back seat).
This is then the first fiction being perpetrated here.
The second is bigger, since - despite the constant discomforts of unbearable weather, leeches, and stinging and biting insects, as well as the presence of major threats to life in the form of deadly viruses known (like Ebola and HIV) or unknown, somebody has with skilful camerawork (including by drone) made this region look like the magnificiently beautiful area it indeed is, whether that be in the "Heart of Africa" (yes Joseph Conrad did write about this place), or the incredible bits along the Atlantic coast.
This is quite alright, as the Congo Basin forest is indeed beautiful - and utterly amazing - but it is NOT a place for (the vast majority of) us, even as we should everyday thank whoever for the fact that something so majestic and wondrous has come into existence on our uniquely-blessed planet.
The main function this episode of this series should then be playing is tell us to agitate, write (and if necessary put our money where our mouths are) to ensure that that wonderful forest remains in place, even as it is alien to us and always will be, and should be.