British Isles: A Natural History (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Region Selection
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	387:00 (Case: 240)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mary Colwell
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Alan Titchmarsh
Case	Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Neil Cartwright

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    British Isles - A Natural History is very true to its title. This is an eight part documentary series examining the origin of the landscape and wildlife of the British Isles.

    The program is presented by Alan Titchmarsh. Although relatively unknown to Region 4 viewers, Titchmarsh is probably the most famous gardener in the United Kingdom both on television and in the printed word where his book on gardening was the highest selling book of its type in Britain. Titchmarsh is a very genuine and enthusiastic presenter who approaches each aspect of British natural history with a real joy and a keen sense of fun.

    The program was clearly designed for a local audience. Titchmarsh says at the beginning that "We live in an amazing place" and no effort has been made to alter this dialogue or voice over of the program from having a local perspective. The program is very hands-on. When Titchmarsh talks about a mountain he climbs it and when he talks about a swamp he gets in it with his wading boots on.

    The episodes are as follows:

Episode 1 Three Billion Years In The Making

    This is something of an introduction to the series. Beginning on top of Britain's highest peak, Ben Nevis, Titchmarsh travels to different parts of the British Isles to show the variety of the environment and wildlife in different parts of the Isles from the wintery north to the southern Isles of Scilly with their washed-up coconuts.

Episode 2 Dinosaurs, Deserts and Volcanoes

    Titchmarsh hitches a ride on a jet fighter to travel to different regions of the British Isles showing evidence that originally England and Wales were part of the Antarctic region whereas Scotland and Ireland were near the Equator. Gradually the islands moved north and by examining underground caves he shows how the British Isles of a few million years ago was entirely different from that of today.

Episode 3 Ice Age

    Delving into a cave in Scotland, Titchmarsh explains how the skull of a Polar Bear was found in its inner recesses. This is strong evidence that the British Isles endured hundreds of thousands of years of deep freeze. When looked at through these eyes it is easy to see how the beautiful valleys of the Isles are nothing more than vast troughs created by glacial movements. In fact, the evidence suggests that there were numerous ice ages followed by periods of warm weather. As a touch of fun Titchmarsh has himself made up as a Neanderthal Man and walks around the city streets to see if he will be noticed. He attracts only a few glances!

Episode 4 Islands Apart

    As little as 8,000 years ago the British Isles were entirely different. For one, there was an unbroken sheet of land between England and France. The English Channel was nowhere to be seen. All this changed when Europe came out of the latest Ice Age and all the dense ice covering the land began to melt. Not only was there an extraordinary amount of water but this led to the greening of Britain. Reminders of the freezing past can still be found in lakes in the North of England which contain fish only otherwise found in the Arctic.

Episode 5 Taming the Wild

    As of 8,000 years ago the British Isles were one huge woodland. However, the human presence was not that distinctive. This episode looks at the various ways in which humans came to make their mark on the environment. One step was turning wolves from enemies into hunting partners. By examining the existence of dung beetles experts have been able to determine the commencement of the domestication of cows. The next step was the felling of trees in order to plant crops. In a funny piece of time lapse photography Titchmarsh tries his hand at felling a plantation tree with a stone axe in competition to a giant tree lopper.

Episode 6 Revolution

    This episode covers the period from about 300 years ago and shows how Britain changed from a largely rural economy to a city based nation through the industrial revolution. The industries which had the greatest effect on the land were coal mining and copper mining. Interestingly, the charcoal industry was actually instrumental in conserving the forests notwithstanding it thrived on wood. This was because they selectively chopped off branches from the trees rather than destroying the trees themselves. The episode looks at the coming of steam power and the introduction of canals throughout Britain to facilitate greater transport of raw materials. Titchmarsh talks about the mass immigration of Irish people after the potato blight and the mass planting of plane trees in London to combat the increasing level of smog and grime. It wasn't all bad news, however, as in 1878 parliament set aside Epping Forest as a wildlife area.

Episode 7 Modern Times

    This episode looks at the last 100 years in Britain to show how the countryside has changed. The needs of agriculture meant that at the beginning of the 20th Century there was the least amount of woodland in Britain for the past 10,000 years. Re-forestation did occur, however, and for the first time the average Briton had a garden in their back yard. These arose out of the post war building booms. In a touching moment Titchmarsh returns to the garden of what was once his grandfather's house and which he had not seen in 50 years. He attributes the times spent in this humble backyard as the origin of his love of gardening. The episode looks at some of the modern problems affecting the environment. One was the efforts made after the famous sea flood of 1953 to bolster sea walls to keep out the water. Although a good idea in itself, it has also meant that the minor flooding which occurred regularly and kept alive an ecosystem of salt marshes also died out. He shows how efforts have been made to break some of the embankments at select locations to allow the salt marshes to come back to life. He also shows how the simple act of taking egg-loving hedgehogs to an island off the coast of Britain has had a great effect on the native bird population. Conservationists are now faced with the difficult question of whether to destroy the hedgehogs or move them to another location where they may cause equal damage.

Episode 8 Our Future

    As the title suggests, this episode is about the future of the British Isles in the face of various environmental problems. He travels to the Lakes District and by comparing the blooming of daffodils to a poem by Wordsworth declares that plants are blooming earlier due to climate change. This has meant that there are pressures on the entire ecosystem including birds which have to lay eggs earlier so that their chicks are hatched when there is ample food. Titchmarsh concludes that Britain is getting hotter and whilst that brings some good news for the sometimes gloomy isles it actually signals deep environmental change.

    The episode is not just about climate change, it also looks at some dangers to the environment from overseas. One is the Asian Longhorn Beetle which can devastate trees and the other is Japanese Knotweed, a type of bamboo, which grows prolifically and can quickly strangle a forest.

    With all the climate change possibilities we are shown a vision of London underwater. The mood is not one of pessimism however, it is simply that Britain faces inevitable change and everyone has to recognise the problem and work out a means to adapt.

Video

    British Isles - A Natural History is presented on DVD in a 1.78:1 transfer which would seem to be consistent with its original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    It is not clear whether it was all shot on video or some on 16mm film. If it was the latter this would explain the somewhat grainy and noisy image presented, particularly in the medium shots featuring Titchmarsh. There are some nice close-ups on various animals and plants and the close shots of Titchmarsh speaking to the camera are also not a problem. The colours are mainly fine.

    It is only in the medium and long shots and in particular the aerial shots that the visual quality suffers.

    Having said that, the program is really more information based than reliant upon spectacular images. It is probably better suited for the smaller screen.

    Additionally, there appears to be some footage in the episodes which may have derived from other sources. I noted some dinosaur CGI shots in Episode 2 which were of average quality. These were then interspersed with some higher quality images which seemed to have derived from Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts.

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Audio

    British Isles - A Natural History is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) soundtrack. The sound is perfectly adequate for this program. There are no flaws in the sound quality and the monologue from Titchmarsh, both in voiceover and direct to camera, is rendered clearly (in audio sync) and is easy to understand.

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    The extras are arranged by episode title from the main series. For example, in the section on the ice age the presenters go to different parts of the UK looking for evidence of glaciers and major flooding after the end of the ice age. There are some nice scenes of people scrabbling over rocks to look for fossils and evidence of Britain's distant and volcanic past. The visual and sound quality of these extras is the equal of the main program and they are just as interesting.

    This DVD is not available in Region 1. The Region 2 DVD is identical.

    British Isles - A Natural History is a comprehensive and authoritative explanation of the evolution of the British Isles over the last few millions of years. It is well presented by Titchmarsh who comes over much like a combination of Don Burke from Burke's Backyard and Peter Cundall from Gardening Australia.

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