BOX-EYED: Lost Land Of The Volcano, Harper's Island & Derren Brown's The Events

September 13, 2009 3:59 PM 

 

By Dan Owen

A new breed of wildlife documentary has been discovered by the BBC; one that combines the usual lush HD photography with a sense of human exploration and pure adventure. Following the success of Lost Land Of The Jaguar last year, the same team of scientists, naturalists and filmmakers have descended on the jungles of New Guinea -- another "unexplored" region that, in an amusing inconsistency, is later revealed to have been explored a few years back by a group that even left behind some old gear. Way to blow the illusion, guys...

The beauty of LOST LAND OF THE VOLCANO is how it cultivates a sense of discovery and adventure from the comfort of your armchair. You half expect the team to stumble upon a tribe sacrificing a blonde showgirl to a giant gorilla, or for a T-Rex to explode out of the foliage and chomp the head off one of the bearded eggheads. It actually makes me sad documentary filmmaking like this wasn't around when explorers really were venturing into uncharted territory. I guess this is as close as we'll get to a fly-on-the-wall expedition led by Dr. Livingtone in the 21st-century. It's easy to be drawn into the vibe Lost Land wants us to feel, even though I suspect the series is exaggerated for effect.

Perhaps the show's biggest success is the fact they really do discover new animals, and not all of them are dull sub-species of bat, frog or millipede. No, they actually found a cat-sized wooly rat! Okay, so even that's not going to stop the presses, but it still carries a certain sense of wonder. In the last series they found a new type of mountain-dwelling shrew, so the discoveries are at least getting bigger... making you wonder if that giant gorilla may appear a few series down the line.

If the Lost Land series has one failing it's that the production team seem more interested in the scientists than the creatures. You might get brief footage of a pygmy parrot, but it'll be outweighed by footage of a cameraman sat inside a camouflaged "hide" complaining about mosquitoes while waiting for said birds to appear. At times, you can understand why the emphasis is placed on the humans, because they do interesting things like climb cliffs, get stuck in whirlpools, and go down dark caves, but sometimes you wish they'd just let the wildlife speak for itself. BBC1/BBC HD, TUE, 9PM

BBC Three have an interesting new US acquisition they're broadcasting in double-bill chunks every Sunday night. While ITV1 gives us Agatha Christie's Miss Marple earlier that evening, BBC Three have HARPER'S ISLAND, partly inspired by Christie's classic Ten Little Indians. It's a high-concept murder-mystery drama about 25 people who arrive on the titular isle for a week of pre-wedding celebrations. Unfortunately, seven years ago the island was the crime scene for a serial-killer who butchered six locals and strung them up from a tree, and now the present-day guests find themselves being killed one by one...

Essentially, this is a serialized slasher film crossed with a glossy US soap. I had fun watching the opening couplet of episodes, but it remains to be seen if it can hold your attention once the novelty wears off. It needs strong characters and a compelling narrative to keep us glued each week, or else you'll just be watching for the bloodshed (which has already included a head-slicing by propeller, a hacked-off torso, a decapitation, and a girl being burned alive in a pit.) If the bride and groom survive the week, I hope they chose a better venue for their honeymoon. BBC THREE/BBC HD, SUN, 9PM.

Mind-fiddler Derren Brown is back for a new series, ominously referred to as THE EVENTS. His first wheeze was to predict Wednesday's National Lottery on live television, broadcast simultaneously across the Channel 4 platform. He succeeded, after insisting there was no significant delay between his transmission and the BBC's feed of the lotto draw, and some channel-hopping seemed to prove this. Of course, theories immediately flooded the internet, ranging from split-screens to mass hypnosis. Many also wondered why Derren didn't show us his prediction before the draw was made, as he mentioned a legal excuse that prevented him from doing so that sounded very suspicious. Friday's hour-long revelation, entitled "How To Win The Lottery" could be described as a disappointment, because no definitive answer was delivered, instead delivering two intriguing theories (one mathematical, one condoning Lotto sabotage), and a few magical set-pieces to illustrate some principles. Good fun, but I can understand people feeling let-down. Still, Derren Brown's one of very few entertainers that can get the whole nation talking for a few days, and you didn't really want the trick spoiled, deep down. Did you? WED, CHANNEL 4 / MORE4 / E4 / FILMFOUR, 10.35PM & FRI, CHANNEL 4, 10PM.

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