Wild Isles

Few television experiences excite me more than a David Attenborough nature documentary.

Wild Isles is a tremendous exploration of the wildlife of the British Isles. The landscapes of Great Britain, its surrounding territories, and Ireland are magnificent and provide a beautiful backdrop to the action.

I find it genuinely difficult not to award 10 stars, but I just felt like the series forced the "this is Britain and it's fabulous" message a little too much, making it fall slightly short of similar programmes like Planet Eart II.

It would be a shock to most people if you don't like this show.

BEST documentary I've ever seen! And I've seen a lot. The cinematography is fantastic, and each scene is better than the previous one. How many have sat down, committing time and energy, to see a documentary, only to be disappointed with viewing something you've seen a million times before? Not with one! Everything is unique and refreshingly new. The dedication the camera people, producers, and crew put into this final product is not short of outstanding.

Last but not least, I must take my hat off to David Attenborough. I mean, the man is almost a 100 years old and still he continues to work and astound! Kudos!!!

When Sir David Attenborough and BBC team up to produce a documentary movie/series, we do not need to watch it and then rate it. They make marvelous documentaries together. This rule applies to this documentary series too. They seem to have turned inside to the wildlife of Britain. As gorgeous are the documentary series they have made about Africa and other parts of the world, this one is massively gorgeous. The scenes are amazing, the creatures displayed are beautiful and beautifully shot. Cinematography is top-notch. Sir Attenborough is doing a great job of making us aware of the natural world, the animals and their fragile future. His documentaries are eye-opening. His narration adds to the beauty of this series.

Silverback Pictures give us another beautifully filmed nature series - this time the brief was "don't say the B word" and so we have a deeply nonconfrontational and nostalgic series all about the natural and globally important beauty of the sovereign United Kingdom and its surrounding territorial waters. The music has strong 90s nature doc overtones and the whole vibe is tremendously serene. In fact it was so soporific I found myself dozing along to most of it. I say this not to denigrate the series but to highlight its supreme peacefulness. There was some contemporary fuss about the final "episode" which amounts to an extremely passive little overview of some carefully selected projects which are in no way going to set anyone off. This is Britain and everything is alright. Everything is alright. It's okay...it's fine.

Taking placed in and around Britain and Ireland, the old master in perhaps his final presentation, avidly narrates alongside views of exquisite wildlife footage in this 5 episode series, showing us the remaining pockets of land and water which are home to remarkable animals. This series on wildlife is as fascinating as any that have come out of more exotic locations. Britain or Ireland could build a zoo just showing these local creatures and it would be a smash.

Sadly, we are reminded that due to human encroachment, pollution, farming runoff, overfishing, few such areas remain and the population of the various species examined have dropped up to 90% in recent years. Hopefully though unlikely, these trends will be reversed.