It’s been a few years since we’ve last had a soothing nature documentary to watch and enjoy, but now Ocean with David Attenborough has made its way onto our cinema screens and the binge-watching can commence.
This is a film that dips its head beneath the waves to celebrate the wonders of the sea – and, in true Attenborough style, examines the impact that humans have had on it. And what better release date than on May 8: Attenborough’s birthday.
The broadcaster has seen a lot in his now-99 years on the planet: from exploring coral reefs as a 30-year-old to heading deep into the Ugandan jungle to meet the gorillas that live there. Doubtless, he’s also seen the wilderness shrink and change during that time, but he’s also made some cracking television.
Once you’ve finished Ocean, where should you look next? Fortunately for us, there are a lot of options to choose from; here are some of the best.
Frozen Planet II (2022)
Frozen Planet was groundbreaking when it came out back in 2011, and the second series (which aired in 2022) took things up a notch. Taking place primarily around the Earth’s two icy poles, it shows us how animals and plants have adapted to living in the most hostile of environments, over the course of the year. We see foxes, we see polar bears, we see ice ‘brinicles’ forming over the bodies of starfish: this is life at its most brutal.
Dynasties (2018 and 2022)
This five-part series delves into the lives of a family of animals from a vulnerable or endangered species: chimps, emperor penguins and tigers among them. Unusually for an Attenborough show, it’s a zoom-in on very specific animals, who we follow over the course of an hour as they fight to survive and thrive in the harsh environments they call home. As with most of these shows, though, you’ll end up rooting for them by the end of the episode – and even better, there’s a series two, which focuses on puma, elephant, cheetahs and a hyena family.
Life on Earth (1979)
The series that started it all. Not only is Life on Earth home to the iconic footage of a young Attenborough being groomed by a tribe of Ugandan gorillas, it’s also the template for all nature documentaries that have been filmed since. The series was staggering in its ambition: filmed across three years, in more than a hundred locations, the show brought together 500-plus scientific advisors and was a monstrous hit. And though the visuals have since improved, modern nature shows are still filmed in exactly the same way.
Planet Earth II (2016)
The infinitely memed Planet Earth II offered up some blockbuster moments for audiences to enjoy – moments worthy of that crashing Hans Zimmer soundtrack. Who could forget the race to the death between the baby iguanas and the hungry racer snakes? But there are other, standout clips that make this worthy of a watch, too: the flamingos all clustered around a lake together; a harvest mouse frozen mid-leap as it attempts to evade an owl, or a sloth going for a swim. Combined with some top-notch editing and narration, and what you have is a show that manages to appeal to everyone.
Blue Planet II (2017)
Look, both Blue Planets are excellent. The first was groundbreaking, opening up the underwater world to us in a way that had never really been done before. We saw worlds so foreign that they were practically alien: just think of the whalefall: ie. the sight of millions of critters feasting on a whale carcass in the deep. But Blue Planet II went one better, combining beauty with tragedy in the way that it started to show the effect that human activity was having on the oceans. The sight of a whale mourning its calf – which had, we are told, died from plastic poisoning – was enough to spark calls to ban single-use plastic for good. It’s still shockingly powerful stuff today.
Ocean with David Attenborough is in cinemas now
