David Attenborough’s tour of sweeping vistas, grumpy felines and terrifying predators is a sublime spectacle – and a rallying call for humanity
Eleven years after the BBC Natural History Unit led by Alastair Fothergill and Vanessa Berlowitz capped its trilogy of documentary series on the wonders of our planet with the icy grandeurs of Frozen Planet, they return with a sequel – “To witness new wonders while there is still time to save them”. That’s Sir David Attenborough speaking. You knew that.
The opening montage of Frozen Planet II (BBC One) lays out the promise of pandas, penguins and polar bears, all brought to us by the latest in technology; racer drones are deployed for the first time, Attenborough tells us. The accumulated skills and wisdom of decades enable them to capture these extraordinary images and put them together with a grace that is seemingly effortless. It is only occasionally you remember to stop and marvel that you will be following that emperor penguin chick into the freezing waters of the Antarctic seas, or swooping above that Weddell seal for the perfect aerial shot as the ice floe fragments around him under the lashing tails of massed killer whales working in fatal unison.
