IN A week of bad press for the BBC, the latest Sir David Attenborough nature documentary was a timely reminder of what our national broadcasting network still consistently gets right. Kingdom (BBC 1, Sundays, first episode 9 November) is the result of five years of skilful and patient industry, filming in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. It is an ambitious six-part series, documenting the rivalries of four animal families as they fight for survival and supremacy on the banks of the Luangwa river.
Choose your fighter: hyena, leopard, wild dog, or lion. All are successful predators, albeit with different methods, from the leopards with their ambush tactics to the scavenger hyenas, who will happily steal a kill while laughing about it. The wild dogs may lack the brute force of a male lion, but their strength is in their unity, working as a team. It’s like Gangs of New York transferred to the Zambian plains, invoking one of the most ancient rivalries of all: cat versus dog.
Three of the groups are led by powerful matriarchs, solely motivated by their instinct to protect their young. These queens are Olimba the leopard, a lone mum of two cubs; Storm the wild dog mother, raising a huge litter of pups; and Tandala the pregnant hyena, who hides food from the rest of her clan to protect the life of her unborn cub. The male lion may well be the apex predator, but he lacks such powerful motivation.
My bias was towards the stunningly beautiful leopards, a fact that my wardrobe will testify to, but the action was so compelling that my allegiance shifted like a metronome depending on which animal was in peril. Kingdom is exciting, tense, and breathtaking. It is a reminder during this age of AI trickery that the real world still has the power to inspire awe. Glorious television.
Caroline Flack: Search for the truth, a two-part documentary (Disney+, first episode 10 November), tells the story of the television presenter’s mother’s fight for justice, five years after Caroline Flack took her own life. Caroline was arrested in 2019 after allegedly assaulting her boyfriend. Although questions had been raised about the veracity of the case against her, the Crown Prosecution Service pressed on regardless. It a troubling story about a situation that was hugely exacerbated by intrusive press and social-media commentary.
Through the eyes of her grieving mother, this account uncovers the struggle to get justice from powerful institutions, and the potentially dire consequences of subsuming the personhood of hurting people under unrelenting process. Flack was dehumanised by a gleefully baying press pack, pushing a false narrative, but also by an institution that sought to protect its own image at her expense. In the wake of her suicide, “Be kind” became the phrase de jour, but, five years on, I wonder how much kinder things really are?
