Wildlife film-maker Mark Brownlow had encountered endless days of stomach-churning sickness while crossing the world\u2019s roughest sea. He\u2019d been so close to a killer whale that he could smell its breath, and he\u2019d had a crushing encounter with dense pack ice on a boat whose engine had failed.<\/p>\n
Anxious moments all, though not the worst while making a landmark series set in the natural world. That, for Brownlow and his colleagues, was showing the work to David Attenborough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest moment when you make any series is when you show David what you\u2019ve been up to,\u201d says Brownlow. \u201cIt\u2019s so important for us that we get his blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the great man\u2019s verdict? \u201cHe was generous enough to be wowed.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s much in this six-part series (that Attenborough narrates) to excite a man who\u2019s seen it all during a 70-year broadcast career. But there\u2019s no escaping the fact that the many exhilarating highs are tempered by some conscience-challenging lows. Wherever you venture in the frozen parts of planet Earth, the consequences of climate change are there to be seen.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t considered so clear-cut in 2011, when the first instalment of Frozen Planet was broadcast. As Brownlow rather mischievously points out, as part of its coverage of that series, RT published the views of Nigel Lawson, who cast doubt on the very existence of global warming.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve come a long way since, as Attenborough attests in his opening remarks in the first scene-setting episode.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking down on our planet, it may come as a surprise to find just how much of it is blanketed in snow and ice. These vast frozen wildernesses cover more than a fifth of the Earth. Yet some areas are so remote and inhospitable that even today the closest we\u2019ve come to exploring them is from space.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The first Frozen Planet examined life in the Arctic and the Antarctic. But the new series, says Attenborough, explores \u201call of Earth\u2019s frozen habitats, from its highest peaks to its snowbound deserts, to deep beneath the ice. Between them they contain an astonishing array of animals, many that are found nowhere else on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd just as we\u2019re beginning to understand its wildlife, we\u2019re recognising an alarming truth. Our frozen wildernesses are disappearing at faster rates than ever before. Never has it been more important to understand what is going on in these icy territories.\u201d<\/p>\n
One such territory, Wrangel Island in the Russian Arctic, creates an apocalyptic impression of life for creatures in the region. This desolate, fog-shrouded place (the Frozen Planet team had to wait three weeks at a Russian base before being helicoptered in) is an unlikely sanctuary for 1,000 polar bears, the greatest concentration on the planet, according to Brownlow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re almost like climate refugees,\u201d he says, as we see them fighting over whatever carrion the sea brings to shore, such as walrus and whale carcass. There\u2019s a Lord of the Flies bleakness to it all and the reason they end up on this island of dark, forbidding cliffs and black sand is because the Arctic sea ice from which they hunt is, in the summer months, disappearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore and more of them are swimming for 14 days across hundreds of miles of ocean to wash up on the nearest piece of land,\u201d says Brownlow. \u201cPolar bears have evolved to hunt off the sea ice to capture seals; that\u2019s what they\u2019re designed for.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, with the loss of so much of the sea ice, they are going to have to adapt fast or we\u2019re not going to see them in the future. You wouldn\u2019t have had this scene on this scale 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Of course, as the storytelling see-saw plunges down, so it must also rise up \u2013 the scenes featuring two five-year-old bears on the winter ice will make your heart soar.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think there\u2019s going to be a fight. Instead, they start playing \u2013 they jump in the water together and slide around on the ice together. It\u2019s a wonderful, magical, moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is that transition from the gloomy to the glorious hard to get right? \u201cYes, it is,\u201d Brownlow says. \u201cFirst and foremost people want to come to these series to revel in the wonder, the awe, the majesty of these frozen worlds. But equally we have to tell the contemporary story of what\u2019s happening. Long gone are the days when we could show you a paradise and forget about the issues \u2013 I think we\u2019d be laughed out of the room if we didn\u2019t nail climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
One scene that combines both magnificence and melancholy is that featuring killer whales targeting Weddell seals lazing on what, for them, must seem like the security of a large \u201craft\u201d of floating ice. In animal intelligence terms it\u2019s stunning; in purely emotional terms it\u2019s heartbreakingly brutal.<\/p>\n
The 100-strong pod that roams the waters of Antarctica has evolved strategies to dislodge and kill these unsuspecting seals. Typically, they create a powerful wave that washes the seals off the ice, into the ocean and almost certain death. But if the ice block is too big, the orcas will shatter it from beneath and then ruthlessly deploy their wave-washing attack.<\/p>\n
We have seen it before, but not from above \u2013 the aerial perspective provided by drones reveals a military-type precision to the attack. \u201cDavid was blown away by it,\u201d says Brownlow. \u201cFrom the air you can understand the relationship between the members of the pod and see how synchronised they are in terms of lining up and moving as one. It takes them 15 years just to learn the art of the wave wash and it\u2019s all led by the matriarch, who could be 100-150 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big showy males with the huge fins do nothing \u2013 they wait for the matriarch to do the hard work, then they clean up. On the one hand it feels brutal because these seals are very lovable and you can\u2019t help but empathise with them, but equally killer whales have family to feed.\u201d<\/p>\n