Sunday, October 30, 2011

Frozen Planet, Epic Viewing

This weekend many of us in the northern hemisphere got an extra hour and I spent it watching the BBC's new series, Frozen Planet, about life at the highest of high latitudes, the poles.

It was an hour of saying "wow" and the occasional "effing wow".

Landscapes that make the Lord of the Rings look wimpy, waterfalls dropping a mile through the ice sheet, explosive birth of icebergs out of glaciers, a polar bear hunting for a mate, wolves taking down a bison, whales blasting through bait balls, sea lions surfing under a wave trying (and failing) to catch a penguin, humpbacks leaping from the water, killer whales deliberately making waves to crack ice or knock seal prey into the water then using bubbles as a smoke screen, underwater wood lice the size of dinner plates, ice caves around the volcano Erebus, rock formations carved from 200 mph winds, the Mars like dry valleys ..... the spectacles continued non-stop.

It was narrated by the national living treasure that is David Attenborough (who is a dot somewhere in the picture above).

For those in the UK I hope you are watching. For those outside prepare to be amazed.

4 comments:

Cliff Clavin said...

Not everyone in the northern hemisphere got an extra hour this weekend. Yes, it was the end of daylight savings time in the UK and EU. But Canada and the USA change their clocks next weekend, several countries such as China, Japan and India do not have DST at all, and Russia is now on permanent DST all year round. Just saying.

JP said...

Thanks Cliff, good to get one's facts straight.

You might enjoy this seasonal classic.

O Docker said...

I wonder if any photographers were harmed in the making of that series.

JP said...

They had the behind scenes bit at the end showing what the photographers got up to.

Rather a lot of diving into ice cold water, crawling into CO2 filled caves, -50C temperatures etc etc

There was this one scene where they were preparing cameras etc by an ice hole and a whole load of killer whales popped out!