Favourite TV Wildlife Presenter

[Dan Salter]

Im still fighting for Ellie Harrison

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

I think the thread should have been called Favourite Wildlife Presenter thats not David Attenborough.....

Nick Baker, Simon King, though very good, is miles behind. Simon reminds me of Dr. Hilary Jones with his mass appeal to women of a certain age. Apart from that no-one else is in the frame.

Cheers,

Adam

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by sanderling

and there's a new one I'm very impressed with, Saba Douglas-Hamilton

Saba's been round for ages. I'd be her Landy chauffeur in Africa though

Cheers,

Adam

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Originally Posted by Adam Cheeseman

Saba's been round for ages. I'd be her Landy chauffeur in Africa though

Cheers,

Adam

She was on BBC2 earlier watching polar bears. Great photography as usual. As I said before I think she could replace David Attenborough without any problem.

BWD

[PMG]

Originally Posted by sanderling

I'd say the top three now are...

Chris Packham, Nick Baker and there's a new one I'm very impressed with, Saba Douglas-Hamilton

Sabas not new! I suspect she has been out there doing the stuff instead of acting on live tv. I remember her from a few years back on Big Cat Diary following the leopards......... there was a programme we couldn't resist for all they cut the film and left each night with cliff hangers (annoying but I put up with it to see the footage!) Of course Simon King was there too following the lions and was not quite so polished or relaxed as he is now (its an age thing!) And the third presenter (John?) followed the cheetahs - I can't remember his last name at the minute (thats an age thing as well!) But who can forget the cheetah (Kiku?) using his roof light as a porta potti and raining both down on him and the cameraman kept filming........... I'd have loved to hear the laughter when he stopped the camera

Pauline

[clover green]

Aside from the obvious Sir David A, I like Saba D.H. , loved Steve Irwin, (he gave a whole new persona to snakes, reptiles & crocs, etc). Also, I really like Simon King.

[Rob T]

Listen guys, I think iv cracked this , a T. V. show called "The wild life factor" or "Celebrity wildlife" Simon, Chris, Ray, Kate, Oddie and Tich could all be made to do a audition infront of Sir David (who would be sat on some type of throne thing with his epolette shirt on ) he could then roll his eyes and look embarressed as they do their stuff.

Then those who make it through could each week go to different parts of the world to make a short docu. on different subjects subjects say, crocks one week Mute Swans the next then present it in front of Sir Dave, who would be joined by Sharon Osborne and Bruce Forsythe they could all run contestants down belittle them and possibly make them cry whilst drinking coca cola.

Then after a few weeks the contestants as if by magic would become absolutely fantastic at their art and it would be the judges turn to cry as our presenters are voted off one by one.

All the time whilst this is going on we could all be ripped off by phoning up and voting for our fave but the TV Co. could leave the worst one in each week to make us more determind to ring up next week.

Eventually the winner (Simon King,Would get my vote) would have a dvd out by Christmas and could be made to be Sir Daves aprentice for a few years to learn the trade.

Well do you think it could work. It may sound a bit simular to several other TV shows but its completely unintential

Rob

[tufftie]

david Attenborough - i've met him a couple of times and he's lovely, helpful and very kind and enthusiastic. Other than that there's a Russian presenter called Nikolai Drozdov (Realms of the Russian Bear) and of the younger ones Kate Humble, Chris Packham and Jessica Holm. I like Bill Oddie and he's always been friendly when I've bumped into him birding but seriously not keen on the whimsical stories he does!
Alan Titchmarsh is far to nice (never thought I'd say that about anyone!) and just hope DB is off the screens permanently - far too up himself.

On a more positive note was just wondering which presenters out there should start doing nature programmes? It would have to be one that would pull in a different audience and while I wasn't keen on Johnny Rottens Insect series he did just that and was extremely enthusiastic. Who was the Python that did a history series - him perhaps? Having always been into nature it's difficult but talking to people the thing that puts them off is what they consider boring nature docs. So while these documentaries need to continue we need some light hearted ones to draw in new people...then we can infect them with the bug!

[Dan Salter]

DB is?

[pressld2]

I'm guessing it's David Bellamy...

Dave P.

[PMG]

Ok finally I've made it to liking Chris Packham (no-no Gill settle down - not like that - he's all yours that way) I mean liking him as in respect........ tonights programme was a no-nonsense cracker - well done to Chris and the team - television at its very very best............

Pauline

[derelict]

I can see there is no stone on AWB that hasn't been turned!

I watch the old Anglia Survival films if I can get up in time!
One of the questions I'd ask is - why are there wildlife presenters at all? Long ago there were the antecedents of Simon King making superb one-off wildlife films which were then given the studio voiceover treatment. And a good thing they did too - there are wildlife films from Africa which are sadly the stuff of history now.

I wonder to what extent the cult of celebrity has brought it about? To me having a conspicuous presenter filling the screen suggests that perhaps the material is not compelling enough to stand up on its own... or rather that someone in the pre-production team doesn't think it is. Frankly it's all getting to be a bit Hollywoody in that natural history programmes cannot even be pitched unless you've got a firm-up from one of the many people mentioned in this thread. Presenters are supposed to facilitate - not star. Theoretically they don't even have to appear on screen.

The other great thing about voiceovers (as the Americans are only too well aware) is that it makes the piece infinitely more marketable on the international market - all you do is change the voice track and occasionally the script (though sometimes this causes problems as with Meerkat Manor.)

Why is David Attenborough pre-eminent? Because he is a one-off. He's been there since the 1950s and headed up the BBC (without being forced out!) What is the chance of any of the other names on here doing that? Also he gets to work on 'budget no object' productions. It's very noticeable in the "Life..." series how infrequently he actually appears...

[deer boy]

I know almost everyone has said David Attenborough, i've seen very little of his stuff, i did see a programme he narrated about Badgers that i thought was brilliant.
But i enjoy watching just as much the following people

Johnny Kingdom
Chris Packham
Simon king
Mike Dilger
Bill Oddie
Gordon Buchanan
Charlie Hamilton-James
Kate Humble
Janet Sumner

I only watch wildlife programmes if it's about british wildlife, i very rarely bother watching programmes about wildlife abroad.

I found this link some of you may like
WildFilmHistory - People list


Finally i watched Nature of Britain & thought Alan Titchmarsh did a good job

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by deer boy

I know almost everyone has said David Attenborough, i've seen very little of his stuff, i did see a programme he narrated about Badgers that i thought was brilliant.
But i enjoy watching just as much the following people

Johnny Kingdom
Chris Packham
Simon king
Mike Dilger
Bill Oddie
Gordon Buchanan
Charlie Hamilton-James
Kate Humble
Janet Sumner

I only watch wildlife programmes if it's about british wildlife, i very rarely bother watching programmes about wildlife abroad.
I found this link some of you may like
WildFilmHistory - People list


Finally i watched Nature of Britain & thought Alan Titchmarsh did a good job

Im pretty much with you on that as its where my interest lies, however i do watch ANY of the excellent Natural world series but am always a bit more excited if they are native ones...and i enjoyed the Wild China series not because it was china or foreign widlife but for the way they actually mentioned the ecology of things which doesnt get much of a look in normally.

[Jim Ford]

Christine Bleakley.

Ok, Ok, so she doesn't do wildlife as such _yet_ - but one can dream!
;^)

Jim

[PMG]

Anyone been watching Big Cat Diaries? We've followed it with interest, but patchily cos of work rotas, over the 6 or 7 years its been going. At one time we couldn't bring ourselves to watch animals killing and eating others - but we now frankly cheer them on whilst still feeling sorry for the gazelles losing their fawns, yet it is obvious esp with the cheetah just how precarious their start in life is and how much they need their mother to be a good hunter and not get hurt or ill.

Anyway I digress the thing which struck me and I wondered if anyone else had spotted it - was that during the darkness filming this last week with the infra red cameras a whispering Simon King has sounded and looked very like the great Sir David and it made me smile - that similarity I don't think Simon is doing it knowingly - I think its just something that hes absorbed over time and its now coming out in his presentation I've gone from disliking him to tolerating to actually enjoying seeing him and hearing him talk (I must be mellowing )

Pauline