Untamed World

Sundays at 5:00 on CTV were a time of wonder and discovery. The fields with their chaff-like growths blowing in the wind signaled the start of a highly informative and haunting half-hour documentary. The thin straight lines speeding in a single direction, albeit staggered, brought us the silhouettes of images (offset by pink, orange, red, and teal backgrounds) that would have been lost in time if not for a YouTube account. And then the announcer, one Alan Small, would finish off almost every episode with "the Untamed World." I remember being scared half out of my wits by, yet strangely drawn to, these simple images (all of which repeated in the outro accompanied by five others) and Mort Garson's haunting theme, but now that fear seems just silly and ridiculous.

During school holidays in the UK of the early seventies, BBC and ITV broadcast lots of kids programs on weekday mornings (if you happened to be living in the rain-soaked North of England this was very welcome, believe me). One of those programs was Untamed World. It stood out from the rest with its slightly strange resolution, its vivid colours (though I'm pretty sure we only had a black and white TV) and unusual animated graphics. It had a very catchy theme tune which was impossible to forget.

Even at the time, Untamed World seemed primitive and certainly there were better nature documentaries, like 'Survival' for example. It was, however, aimed specifically at children and we were kids hungry for TV. It was one of those programs which exercised a strange kind of magic that subsequently fuelled many intriguing reminiscences. The baritone narration was very authoritative and conveyed a sense of awe and mystery; it gave the impression that the images we were watching were of animals, places and peoples that were in the process of being lost forever.

Such a great exotic wildlife series!! It had that incredible intro theme & visuals that had you hooked instantly... when I watched this on CTV Sunday evenings as a child I sat in wonderment totally absorbed, I can remember hearing that theme start up and having a flood of adrenaline knowing that something unique and amazing was about to transpire. The African segments especially blew me away and in COLOUR (yeah that's right Canadian spelling,,,Canadian show) no less!! This was my favourite wildlife show, so happy to see it offered in DVD to enjoy again and again.....