This is a nature documentary of grand scope, of the kind that it seems the BBC can do with its eyes closed these days. After all, nature can provide a seemingly endless array of fascinating creatures, and the Beeb has the resources to get stunning footage from all corners of the globe.
While Life doesn’t disappoint in these respects, it isn’t up there with Planet Earth or Blue Planet. While each segment is excellent, they seem to have been strung together with little effort to make a coherent structure; David Attenborough links them with vague bits of narration about the life having to adapt to survive, or something equally non-specific. He even opened last night’s episode by saying: “Life is at its most intense in the relationship between predator and prey.” “Life is at its most intense”? What does that even mean? And in addition, last night’s episode seemed to re-visit some of the animals already featured in previous episodes.
Having said all that, I still have to admit that the programme-makers can get away with being a little lazy, since the content is so intriguing and beautifully shot. Ants that farm a fungus to feed their colony, tiny frogs nurturing their tadpoles in the water caught in the petals of a rainforest flower, underwater footage of the wonderfully bizarre-looking star-nosed mole – there’s plenty here to keep the viewer amazed at the diversity of the natural world. And, after all, that is the whole point of a documentary like this.
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