Some of the things you’ll see on BBC’s Decade of Discovery will be hard to believe exist, but every single entry, along with the runners, up are (apparently) hunky dory, bona fide living creatures. The best bit though is that every single one of them hadn’t even been discovered before the last decade.
Presented by Chris Packham, who fronted the brilliant Really Wild Show back in the day with Michaela Strachan (H.O.T) and Terry Nutkins, the programme follows Packham as he travels the world to bring us his top 10 nature discoveries of the last decade, including a giant stick insect from the rain forests of Borneo called Chan’s megastick, which sounds like it could be be up for a scrap with Godzilla.
Chris Peckham’s nature presentation skills are spot on, bringing together both the creatures discovered and the story of their discovery by some of the world’s most intrepid (and in some cases bat shizz crazy) explorers in the world. While you might find yourself disagreeing with a few of the choices (for example I reckon the fish with the see through head kicks the giant red jelly fish’s back tentacle every day of the week), you’ll find it difficult to question the combination of interest, spectacle, education and conservation that are core features of the programme.
I had my doubts about the winner, a pigmy sloth from an isolated island off the coast of Panama, but when I saw it swimming in the sea, chillin’ with the nature dude that discovered them or cwtching up with its mate, I was completely convinced.
Today (21/12/10) is your last chance to see Decade of Discovery on BBC iPlayer, so get moving if you want to watch it. There’s no word of a DVD as of yet, but if I find anything out, I’ll publish it here. However, surely it wouldn’t take much to host programmes like Decade of Discovery on iTunes for a small fee, so why is it that it isn’t happening yet?
Decade of Discovery review: 4.4/5
