THIS week’s viewing was all about the ordinary wonder of wildlife and the abundant nature that is found right on our doorsteps. Secret Garden (BBC1, Sundays from 5 April), a five-part series presented by Sir David Attenborough, is the perfect thing to watch as we approach the stellar broadcaster’s 100th birthday on 8 May.
He presents this with all the gravity of a documentary filmed on the Serengeti, including in his introduction of a British Shorthair cat in a backyard in Bristol: “This is the neighbourhood’s top predator. . .” — portentous pause for effect — “Mr Fluffy.” It is an exploration of the largely unseen drama that unfolds every day in Britain’s backyards — a source of pride and joy for many of us, but also places where we are often oblivious of the wildlife that exists there.
Collectively, our gardens cover more square miles than anywhere else, making them as diverse as a tropical rainforest. As someone who spent the Easter break building a mini-pond in my garden, I have a vested interest in this kind of diversity.
Each episode reveals a different part of Britain, from an elegant mill-house garden in Oxfordshire and an urban backyard in Bristol to the Lake District, the Wye Valley, and the Scottish Highlands. Each garden is teeming with life, and, because this is an Attenborough documentary, is also fraught with umpteen unseen perils. Don’t be fooled by the domestic setting: these British gardens really are as dangerous as the Serengeti, particularly if you are a tiny bank vole, navigating a lawn and hoping to avoid death by Roomba.
If you have a fondness for cute animals, you will find this adorable, albeit anxious viewing, with its newborn voles (each no bigger than a jelly baby), tiny ducklings, and fluffy barn owlets. It is beautiful television, which will surely renew your love of your own back garden, if you have one.
Sam and Ade Go Birding (Channel 5, 14 April) follows the keen birdwatcher and actor Samuel West as he introduces his mate, the actor Adrian Edmondson, to the birds of Britain. Britain has not had a notable birdwatcher since Bill Oddie; so public perception of the hobby was well overdue a reboot. Mr West is the right man for the job, as he is charming and enthusiastic, which is always endearing.
This is very much an attempt to ape the middle-aged buddy vibes of Gone Fishing, the series featuring the comedians Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse (Media, 6 July 2018). It has the same stunning landscapes, relaxing pace, and benign chit-chat. I know as much about birds as Mr Edmondson (“I could probably recognise a penguin”); so I also learned from this. It is packed with bird facts, and the inspiration to get out into the great outdoors and start spotting them yourself.
