The BBC bee vs the National Geographic spider
If you’re a fan of nature docos you’ll enjoy these video clips on The Ranger’s Blog, highlighting the cultural differences between America’s National Geographic and Britain’s BBC both discussing the same topic; a spider lying in wait to catch a bee for dinner.
The “unashamedly anthropomorphic” National Geographic:
The jumping spider packs a ton of skulking pouncing killing fire-power in its tiny body… How’d you like to stare into these eyes, with your life on the line? Ha! Yikes!
As opposed to BBC’s David Attenborough “quiet, almost abstract delivery”:
A white crab spider sits, almost invisible, on a white flower, waiting in ambush. And it catches a bee.
(Where do people think TVNZ’s Natural History New Zealand fits on this spectrum?)
Anyway, in another form of nature documentary, Parliament’s question time continues today, probably with some anthropomorphic coverage of the Winston Peters funding scandal. For those of you though who are more BBC than National Geographic, Sue Kedgley will be asking this question in the house on an issue (to the Minister for the Environment):
Will he act to ban the toxic insecticide, endosulfan, which has been prohibited in the European Union, but which is still sprayed on tomatoes and other food crops, as well as parks and playing fields in New Zealand; if not, why not?
Hat tip - Seed Magazine, which also recently pointed to this spectacular leopard vs crocodile photo series at the Telegraph:
July 30th, 2008 at 11:57 am
There is/was a show on one of the SKY channels (maybe Nat Geo, heh) that simulated unlikely animal showdowns, like a Tiger vs a lion, shark vs…a gorilla or something. But a real leopard vs a real croc - woah!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
A bit like Helen vs John, but better looking!
July 30th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Interesting contrast in docos. Love it. The NHU was definitely closer to the Beeb version. I’d say NHNZ has followed in their footsteps. Jeremy Wells still lampoons Sir Kenneth’s Landmarks style in TUHONZ to great effect.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
The show was “Animal Face Off” which, to link back to frog’s question, was made by NHNZ (http://www.nhnz.tv/cat_nature.html).
I assumed it might have been based on the wealth of antipodean accents in the ones I saw. They’ve kinda moved on from Wild South and so on.
There’s one where a crocodile beat a lion.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Animal fights. Meh. Prefer Spiders on Drugs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHzdsFiBbFc
July 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I was watching the BBC’s The Blue World last night and thought Attenborough was totally prejudiced against orca, referring to them as ‘killer’ whales and presenting their hard, well-organised and cooperative work to get lunch out of a grey whale calf as an ‘attack’, then moaning about them only eating the tongue and lower jaw.
I think he’s just jealous because orca are cooler and prettier than he is.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
NHNZ haven’t been part of TVNZ for over a decade, since Fox Studios bought it (read: rescued it from closure) in 1997. Kiwis are unlikely to have seen anything free-to-air out of NHNZ for years. It’s almost only ever on Sky (especially Discovery or NatGeo) or very recently TVNZ6 on Freeview.
Where they ‘fit on the spectrum’ is where there’s a market. Most of their productions are for the US, but they get into Japan, Europe and increasingly China and Singapore. They make everything from top shelf productions like the ‘Equator’ and ‘Wild Asia’ series to populist stuff like ‘Megastructures’ and ‘Most Extreme.’
Still based in Dunedin, NHNZ employs heaps of Kiwi talent. If whatever Government we’ve got by the end of the year sorted out decent funding for ‘Charter’ programming, maybe there’ll be budget to get NHNZ into local docos again….
July 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Thanks forestgreen for that background. I have to admit my comments on NHNZ were drawn from foggy memory and I should have checked it’s current status first before drawing it into the post. It would be great to have a charter that allowed more of its work to be on air here in NZ.
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Completely agree with forestgreen. Would like to point out the 8-part series “What Lies Beneath” - an archeological look at New Zealand, co-produced with TVNZ. You can find it in their “people” catalog: http://www.nhnz.tv/cat_people.html