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As a self-confessed Attenborough fangirl, Frozen Planet was an early Christmas present to me. The news that his dulcet tones would be echoing around my living room for seven weeks had me grinning with glee. Don't even get me started on the majestic TV advert. I would happily hand over my TV license fee for a constant stream of animals jumping or fighting in slow motion set to soaring classical music. When the BBC does documentaries it does them well.
Clad in a snug-looking parka and woolly hat, Attenborough addressed us from the frozen planet itself, his breath coming out in wheezy clouds. As nice a touch as this is, I couldn't help feeling that he should have been clutching a warm cup of cocoa in an armchair. The man's 85 for goodness sake. I was on the edge of my seat hoping against hope that a polar bear wouldn't appear from around the corner and carry him away. Apart from sometimes at the beginning and end of episodes, Attenborough is his usual disembodied voice – sometimes amusing, sometimes dramatic, always fascinating.
The clear stars of the show are the penguins and polar bears. For sheer amusement, you can't beat the Adelie penguins. With their strangle goggly eyes, habits of stealing rocks from other penguins and waddling gait, any screen time with them is a pleasure. Also, for penguins they convey (or at least look like they're conveying) a surprisingly wide range of emotions. You never usually think that animals can convey mischievousness or sadness or disappointment, but they can.
Through the course of the episodes we follow a mother polar bear with her two cubs. They grow from adorable little balls of fluff into scraggly yellow teenagers. Despite the amazing footage of male polar bears hunting and fighting, the force of blows made even more powerful by super slow motion, you just want to cuddle them. Never mind the fact that one of those bears could crush your skull in a matter of seconds, they just look like overgrown Beanie Babies.
The cinematography is stunning. It's easy to forget just how difficult and time-consuming it is to film documentaries of this magnitude. Time after time you're absorbed totally into the programme, watching huge chunks of ice crash into the sea or killer whales twisting and turning underneath the ice, when it suddenly hits you. How did they film this? We take for granted the sweeping aerial shots, the perfect footage of little wolf cubs but when you actually stop to think about it, it seems an impossible task. Hence the last fifteen minutes of each episode are glimpses into how they filmed the series, revealing just how much of an undertaking it was.
But never mind the amazing camera work, the insightful musings of Attenborough or the stunning hunting scenes – what you really take from Frozen Planet is just how funny animals can be. It might as well be called Animals Do the Funniest Things. You haven't laughed until you've laughed at baby birds trying to fly for the first time and crash landing head over heels into the ocean. Or an Emperor penguin surprised by a hidden hole. Or a galumphing seal lion chasing a penguin. And losing. Pure brilliance.
Tune into Frozen Planet next Wednesday on BBC1 at 9pm for more polar bear cuteness...
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