Asia (BBC1)
Is there anything more reassuring on a Sunday night than seeing Sir David Attenborough enter the scene, ready to introduce us to a new series?
It means we’re almost certainly in for an hour of the best television has to offer.
Of all the wonderful places in the world,” he said from a wood-paneled room at the Natural History Museum, “one continent has more riches than any other. If you think you’ve seen the best the natural world has to offer, think again.
He is now 98 years old, but there was still an unmistakable gleam of excitement in his eyes as he introduced his new series Asia.
There will be seven programs and we start under the waves with a goldfish called Idolo Moro.
Sir David Attenborough’s new series Asia is an hour of the best television has to offer.
A dark grilled mudskipper sitting in the mud in the mangroves on the Indonesian island of Java
A pod of sperm whales socializes on the surface of the deep waters of the Indian Ocean
Sir David may be 98 years old, but there is still an unmistakable glint of excitement in his eyes as he presents his new series.
They are decorated with bright yellow, white and black stripes, which certainly makes them very attractive to underwater camera crews.
But this leaves them with a fatal disadvantage. They could also have a sign tattooed that says: “Lunch is served.”
It wasn’t long before a flock of hungry sharks swam into view with a gleam in their collective eyes.
When Sir David takes us underwater, the sharks soon arrive. They must have the best agent in the natural world.
The sharks quickly destroyed the Moorish idols. We could watch from above as a swarming yellow mass desperately tried to escape the relentless gray pursuit.
Once the sharks finished the job, that mass of black, white and yellow was reduced to just eight rather forlorn idols.
With that we head 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 slide open-mouthed through the water, gobbling up plankton. And when they’ve had their fill, they enjoy a trip to an underwater version of a spa.
A young Yunnan snub-nosed monkey exploring its forest home in the Hengduan Mountains in China
A family of the Takhi, once extinct in the wild, in Hustai National Park in Mongolia
An Asian water monitor lizard found in central Bangkok, in Lumpini City Park
Small butterflyfish nibble on rays and eat plankton and dead fish. For butterflyfish, it is a complete meal. For the stingrays, it’s a treat before it’s feeding time again.
Much of Asia’s underwater world appears to have been designed by a CGI magician working under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.
There is a slug called Sea Bunny because it looks like a toy rabbit, with black-tipped ears. And in the Sea of Japan there are firefly squid, whose tiny blue and green lights look like decorations on a Poundland Christmas tree.
The cinematography, as is usual with BBC natural history films, was exceptional. 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 weird), there’s someone in a wetsuit and a camera watching.
May they continue for a long time.