Whale with Steve Backshall, review: a refreshing change of pace from the BBC Attenborough model
We all doff our caps to the BBC’s natural-history output, but the Attenborough model has its limitations. Where it can devote only 10-minute gobbets to any story before moving on, Steve Backshall has an ocean of time at his disposal, and he makes great use of it in Whale with Steve Backshall (Sky Nature).
Whales get about a bit and so does this four-part photo essay. The first episode opened in the Azores and took in the Bahamas, the South Pacific, Mauritius and Mexico. He even went to Wales (though, alas, not to film whales); the photography was awe-inspiring.
There are a lot of cetaceans to get through – 90 species, all with their own habits. Take the notoriously shy Risso’s dolphins, who just happened to swim by as the crew were chasing sperm whales in the Azores. As if on cue, they gathered into a shoal-like cluster that has rarely been witnessed let alone captured on film.
Unique behaviours are spectacularly illustrated. Who knew that male humpbacks are great vocalists, but females can’t sing, instead spreading news of their presence by slapping the sea’s largest fins on the sea’s surface? Or that male sperm whales swim alone while females are so social that they even act as wet nurses. Not many mammal species will suckle another mother’s young. “Among them of course,” said Backshall, “are humans.”
The implied solipsism – that whales merit attention because of their similarity to humans – was sounded a little too often in his commentary. “The more we look,” he said as sperm whales gave one another armless hugs, “the more we see our own lives reflected.” Hmm… This sense of connection can of course be weaponised to promote cetacean wellbeing now that humans endanger them through sound pollution.
It wasn’t explicitly argued here, but perhaps whales have worked out that befriending the human race is in their best interests. “It’s so immense to have them so close to you,” gushed a woman in California as a grey whale nudged her calf close to the boat: we study them, they study us. You’ll have a whale of a time watching this man-made series.
