Asia (BBC1)
Is there anything more comforting on a Sunday evening than the sight of Sir David Attenborough stepping into the shot, ready to introduce us to a new series?
It means that we will almost certainly enjoy an hour of the best that television has to offer.
Of all the beautiful places in the world,” he said from a wood-paneled room in the Natural History Museum, “one continent has more wealth than any other. If you think you’ve seen the best nature has to offer, think again.’
He’s now 98, but there was still an unmistakable twinkle of excitement in his eye as he introduced his new series Asia.
There will be seven programs, and we started under the waves with a colorful fish called Moorish Idol.
Sir David Attenborough’s new series Asia is an hour of the best that television has to offer
A dark-grilled mudskipper sits in the mud in the mangroves of the Indonesian island of Java
A group of sperm whales socialize on the surface in the deep waters of the Indian Ocean
Sir David may be 98, but there’s still an unmistakable twinkle of excitement in his eye as he introduces his new series
These are decorated with stripes in brilliant yellow, white and black, which undoubtedly makes them very attractive to underwater camera teams.
But it leaves them with one fatal disadvantage. They might as well be tattooed with a sign that reads, “Lunch has been served.”
It wasn’t long before a hungry gang of sharks came into view with a gleam in their collective eyes.
When Sir David takes us underwater, it’s never long before the sharks arrive. They must have the best agent in the natural world.
The sharks made short work of the Moorish Idols. We could watch from above as a swarming yellow mass desperately tried to escape the relentless gray pursuit.
Once the sharks’ work was done, that mass of black, white and yellow was reduced to just eight, rather forlorn Idols.
With that it was on to Komodo Island and the Manta Ray, which looks like a cross between a Stealth Bomber and a Hercules with the cargo door open.
They glide through the water with slack jaws and swallow plankton. And when they’ve had enough, they enjoy a trip to an undersea version of a spa.
A young Yunnan snub-nosed monkey explores its forest home in the Hengduan Mountains of China
A family of the once extinct wild Takhi in Hustai National Park in Mongolia
An Asian water monitor found in the middle of Bangkok in the Lumpini City Park
Small butterfly fish nibble on the rays and eat plankton and dead fish. For the butterfly fish it is a square meal. The rays enjoy some time before feeding time comes again.
Much of Asia’s undersea world looks as if it was designed by a CGI wizard working under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.
There’s a slug called the Sea Hare because it looks like a toy rabbit, complete with black-tipped ears. And the Sea of Japan is home to firefly squid, whose tiny blue and green lights resemble a Poundland Christmas tree decoration.
The photography, as usual with BBC natural history films, was excellent. It’s easy to forget that while the wonders of the deep go about their daily lives – eating each other, reproducing, or just looking colorful and strange – there’s someone in a wetsuit and a camera watching.
Long may they continue.