A superb piece of television from the BBC. At 97 Attenborough is still in fine form showing the discovering of a new sea monster fossil. The program was filmed in the UK and really celebrates our history of fossil finds. In an age where BBC broadcasting seems to be inclined and obsessed with identity politics this is an example of what it can still do. The program is accessible to the layperson but is still packed with content and information. Experts are brought on from various universities to tells us more. The program remains very focused too unlike some other bigger budget BBC nature series which seem to be more out to awe you than educate you. All in all very impressive.
2 Reviews
"Quite a big boy and that's just the skull"
owen-watts6 April 2024
Old Attenborough continues to lumber onward like a living fossil (which isn't an insult given how much he loves a fossil) and in the festive period of 2023-2024 we got this documentary about the logistics surrounding the retrieval of a colossal pliosaur skull sticking halfway out of a Dorset cliff-face. The real stars here aren't the twinkly-eyed Attenborough full of boyish joy for the act of discovery but the bizarrely bantering fossilmen Etches & Moore whose job it is to scale down the cliff and get at the skull. The subsequent scans and explorations of the find are genuinely fascinating and there's a nice driving focus throughout that I wasn't expecting. Bonetacular. Bonetastic.
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