Human Planet (2011)

Human Planet seems like the natural successor to the Life of Mammals/Birds/in Cold Blood strand that David Attenborough has made over the years, taking humans as its subject instead of animals. Filmed with the same gorgeous cinematography as more usual BBC natural history programmes, the show was narrated with some bombast by John Hurt, who I kept imagining was about to launch into the Merlin preamble about magic. The choice of narrator added gravitas but not authority, which Attenborough would have brought, but still this show wasn't about the narration, it was more about the people.

Each show was themed and followed people from around the world in various locations - in the desert, around rivers, in the polar regions, and finally, oddly, in cities - and focussed on feats of endurance or curious methods of finding food and water in seemingly inhospitable environments. Several stories stick in my mind - the communities who catch and kill auks, and then stuff them in a bag to go rotten before eating them; the jungle dwelling children who catch massive tarantulas and then barbeque them in the fire until good enough to eat; the divers who use cheap garden hose to help them breathe underwater; the sulphur miners who risk death every day; the young girl and boy who must spend days walking on a freezing, thawing river just to get to school... Such an array of people and astonishing human behaviour. 


The programme regularly had me gasping in amazement at the lengths people must go to in some areas of the globe just to eat and drink. You wonder why they don't just move somewhere easier, but then some of these skills would be forever lost. Human Planet was always fascinating and looked beautiful, and the 10 minute making of that closed each episode was equal interesting, showing how much patience and endurance the camera crews went through to capture these amazing stories. I'm glad they did.