Darwin's Struggle Review from Giantsorbiting

Doubtless many of you will have watched David Attenborough's Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life on BBC1 last Sunday night at 9pm, and if not you can still catch it on the BBC iPlayer here.

However, more fascinating, I found was the rigorous exploration of Darwin's life leading up to his great works as is conveyed through Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species.

Jeremy Bristow's production gives us a brutally accurate description of the truly tragic life Charles Darwin lead: His family touched by the tragedies of the deaths of three of his children finally causing him to lose his faith and to damn religion... The influence of his daughter Anne's death on chapter 3 of On the origin of species as he sees the face of nature stricken as her face was with the struggle to survive...
His concern for his wife Emma's fear that he will be damned to hell.

It is easy to forget, amongst visions of his great works and great voyages that Charles Darwin was a man leading a man's life with all the pressures we experience today and more. His personal growth is almost as amazing as the theories it precedes.



Eventually Darwin published his book only highlighting the effects of his theories on species and avoiding the implications of the origins of mankind; but these implications were not lost on many scientists including his close teacher and mentor Adam Sedgewick who brutally denounced his work in a devastating letter to him.
He was subject to widespread ridicule.


Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species is a fascinating exploration of the life-long torment which lead to one of the most important theories in science today. One of the most honest portrayals of Darwin to date, I'd recommend anyone interested in his great works to watch Darwin's Struggle and learn about the true evolution of the origin of species.

Read the full review from Giantsorbiting here.

You can watch Darwin's Struggle on the iPlayer until Monday the 9th February and it will also air again tonight (Tuesday 3rd) at 7.30pm on BBC4.

The Nature of Britain: Woodlands

Wednesday 14th November 21.00 BBC1
4.5Mviewers, 18.6% Audience Share

Radio Times:
6/8 - Woodland
Alan Titchmarsh enters our ancient woodlands to discover beautiful butterflies, dormice and a bird with a beak like a pair of pliers. He reveals the secrets of the central character in all this drama, on whom all the creatures of the forest depend - the trees.

Nature of Britain: Freshwater Britain

BBC One Wednesday 31 October 2007, 9.00-10.00pm

Join Alan Titchmarsh as he travels from our island's rivers to the sea, to reveal the beauty and spectacle of freshwater Britain.

Discover the real Loch Ness Monsters, the venomous mammal stalking the Hampshire countryside, and the unexpectedly romantic side of the predatory pike.

Watch kingfishers diving, salmon leaping and a songbird that swims underwater. And find out why a drop of rain is the key to keeping all this wonder and beauty alive.

Credits
Producer: Simon Bell
Series Producer: Stephen Moss

The Nature of Britain: Urban Britain

Wednesday 24th October, 20.30 C4
5M viewers, 21.5% Audience Share

Radio Times: 3/8 - Urban
No pretty pictures of pastoral scenes this week. Instead, Alan Titchmarsh is looking at the different species of wildlife that have adapted to urban living. It means, other than the occasional shot of adorable fluffy ducklings (surviving a dive of 60 feet from a tower-block balcony to the pond below, no less) we're basically talking about creepy-crawlies, pigeons, foxes and the like. There are some surprises, though. Not least that the River Tyne is now clean enough to provide a habitat for otters. But what's really amazing is finding out exactly how creatures have adapted: seagulls, for instance, are nesting on top of a city building in Bristol because they think they're safe from predators there. They didn't reckon on TV presenters and crews stomping about the place, of course.

The Nature of Britain: Farmland

Wednesday 17th October, 21:00 BBC1
5.6M viewers, 24.8% Audience Share

Radio Times: 2/8
Cowpats: not something I'd ever thought of as beautiful but, on the evidence of this week's programme, I can see that they - or at least the fungi that grow on them - have a certain visual charm. Alan Titchmarsh has come over all pastoral to explore the flora and fauna that are an integral part of Britain's farmland - and as farmland makes up a hefty three-quarters of our country, that's a lot. Much of it is cosily familiar to even a rabid urbanite - sheep, ladybirds, fields of poppies, that sort of thing. But the sight of thousands of rooks perched on telegraph wires is astonishing, while the footage of cows gambolling like lambs on the first day of spring is delightful. And if you missed last week's hare-boxing highlight, that's repeated here, too.

The Nature of Britain: Coastal Britain

Wednesday, October 10th, 21.00 C4
4.9M viewers (Slot Average 4.5M), 21% Audience Share

BBC Online:
Alan Titchmarsh makes an epic journey across the length and breadth of the country to explore the huge diversity of wildlife in The Nature Of Britain. The eight-part series, which can be seen this October on BBC One, is the first comprehensive portrait of the links between Britain's plants, animals and the places where we live for over 20 years and a first for the channel.
Using the very latest in filming technology, such as ultra-high speed cameras and the heli-gimbal camera mount which gives rock-steady aerial shots, The Nature Of Britain brings many TV exclusives to our screens.

These include killer whales hunting seals off Shetland, the underwater courtship behaviour of the pike, a honey buzzard raiding wasps' nests and otters in the River Tyne right in the centre of Newcastle. The ambitious series, made by the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit and co-produced by The Open University, also celebrates the uniqueness of British wildlife – from magnificent boxing hares to bizarre dung beetles; and from tiny harvest mice to mighty golden eagles.

Nature of Britain: Programme 1: Island Britain

Weds 10th October, 9pm BBC 1

The definitive landmark television series on Britain’s wildlife: A contemporary portrait of the most celebrated, watched and best-loved wild creatures in the world.

Join Alan Titchmarsh on a journey of discovery through eight key British landscapes,
as he tells the stories of the surprising relationships between the land and the creatures that live there, and pieces together the puzzle of what lives where – and why!

In the first episode of this landmark series on Britain's wildlife Alan Titchmarsh travels from the top of the British Isles to the bottom, to discover what makes our island home and its wild creatures so special.

From boxing hares to blonde hedgehogs, swirling starlings to swooping seabirds, and fighting seals to leaping dolphins Britain's rich natural heritage is full of wonder, spectacle and surprise.


Credits
Producer: Chris Cole
Series Producer: Stephen Moss