Thursday 17 January 2013

David Attenborough



So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve been watching David Attenborough’s Africa which comes on every Wednesday at nine in the evening. Now, I never used to be a fan of David Attenborough. In my brain, I had him shipped off into a category with all the other boring scientific TV personalities. But then I got an email from an old school friend and we talked a bit and she told me how much she loved Frozen Planet which was an Attenborough series that aired last year (or the year before, I don’t remember.)
So one night I flicked to this legendary Frozen Planet to humour myself more than anything and as you can imagine, I ended up hooked. It was full of the most amazing shots of the arctic and icebergs and polar bears… it was breathtaking.

And this year we get Africa which is just as, if not more awesome than Frozen Planet. Over the last four weeks, I have watched giraffes fighting, lions fighting and elephants fighting, all in the most glorious HD you can imagine. There was this scene on the first week where animals from all over were coming to a little watering place and they were so at ease with one another. There were zebras and giraffes and birds and they were just there, drinking harmoniously in the wild. It was amazing! And then lions came and chased them all away. And there was this part where a herd of elephants were walking through the desert and the little baby elephant was too tired and thirsty and it lay down and wouldn’t get up and then it died. It was so sad but so fascinating to watch.

OK, I just read what I wrote back to myself and realised that it is literally IMPOSSIBLE for me to describe just how amazing this programme is. I could watch episodes back to back and never get tired.
The shots over the rainforests, savannahs and mountains are beautiful; they take you to a different place and you learn so much about different animals. David Attenborough narrates it all and he has such a great distinctive voice which just brings the whole show together. Seriously, until you watch it, you won’t know what you’re missing out on!


And a song which everyone MUST listen to (you probably already have but I’m still hooked) is “Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia. I was shocked when these guys split up but this song is one of their best. It was number one a while ago but I still love it –hasn’t quite got old yet! The bit about ‘I met a girl of a different kind’ and ‘Up on a hill across a blue lake’ are just… beautiful.