BBC witnesses end of an era

Attenborough delivers swansong

By STEVE CLARKE

Why are millions of Brits sitting down every week to watch an elderly man in shorts talk about snakes and other cold-blooded critters?

Actually, the reason is quite simple. “Life in Cold Blood,” a co-production between the BBC and Animal Planet, is being billed as David Attenborough’s swansong, the culmination of a cycle of natural history documentaries that began back in 1979 with the 13-part “Life on Earth.”

Subsequent documentaries in the sequence have included “The Private Life of Plants,” “The Life of Mammals” and “Life in the Undergrowth.”

Explains Attenborough, a graceful 81 year old: “I so desperately wanted to make a series on reptiles, to make the ‘Life on Earth’ series a coherent and complete survey of life on land, so I'd be able to say — with my feet up in my bathchair — ‘There you are, it’s on the shelf, that’s what the natural world looks like at the end of the 20th century, in about 40 hours.’ ”

Well, he made it. Not that Attenborough has anything to prove — apart from, possibly, to himself.

It is impossible to think of another TV presenter in the U.K. who would be given the consistent backing that has allowed him — and the BBC — to assemble a legacy of documentaries on this scale.

Attenborough is, of course, a great British institution, as much a part of the BBC’s DNA as the corp.’s labyrinthine management structure but, thankfully, a lot more viewer-friendly.

His name is synonymous with integrity, trust and an astonishing wide-eyed pleasure in what he does. He may have been broadcasting since the 1950s but if anything his enthusiasm for the natural world has increased.

Observe the look on his face when in the opening episode of “Life in Cold Blood” Attenborough is finally shown a pygmy chameleon in its natural habitat after first hunting for it 47 years ago for “Zoo Quest.”

Even the BBC’s resident court jester, Jonathan Ross, treated him with respect when he appeared as a guest on Ross’ Friday night chat show.

In an age of media cynicism, Attenborough represents a more noble set of values.

There is obviously more than a touch of romance in all of this, but in a debased medium that TV sometimes is, especially in the past year when even the BBC was caught cheating audiences, the corp.’s debt to the great natural history broadcaster is clearer than ever.

In the U.K. there is no other single broadcaster who gets close to commanding the respect and even (whisper it gently) love that this one-time BBC topper (he was head of BBC2 in the 1960s) with movie star looks evokes.

Even so, some critics have carped that “Life in Cold Blood” is not quite up to scratch.

“The start of … ‘Life in Cold Blood,’ ” wrote the Daily Telegraph’s Stephen Pile, “was clearly a sacred moment in broadcasting history, so an awkward silence is bound to fall when one points out that it was not as good as its predecessors.”

Pile wasn’t the only reviewer to accuse the skein of sloppy editing (Attenborough suggested in program one that both the leather-backed turtle and the salt-water crocodile were the biggest reptile) and being too much in thrall to night-time filming.

Moreover, the subject matter of “Life in Cold Blood” is less obviously appealing than, say, sharks, gorillas, bears or big cats, although in one scene we witness a python swallowing a deer whole.

None of this seems to matter to the audience. “Life in Cold Blood” is shaping up to be one of the banker shows of the BBC’s winter season generating big crowds for flagship channel BBC1.

Scheduled at 9 p.m. on Monday evenings, the show looks set to settle down at around six million viewers and a 24% share.

This is a bigger audience that most dramas get, never mind documentaries.

Internationally “Life in Cold Blood” is bound to be a big seller.

Attenborough still intends to make programs for the BBC, but it looks likely there will be nothing from him on this scale again; although at just five episodes, “Life in Cold Blood” is not as ambitious as most of its predecessors, including “Life of Mammals” and “Life of Birds,” both made in 10 episodes.

The program, in other words, represents an end of an era unique in British television.