This article needs a
plot summary. (July 2021) |
Life in Colour | |
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Also known as |
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Genre | Documentary |
Written by |
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Directed by |
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Narrated by | David Attenborough |
Composer | James Dorman |
Country of origin |
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Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
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Producers |
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Camera setup | Multi-camera |
Running time | 50 minutes |
Production companies |
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Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 28 February 22 April 2021 | –
Life in Colour [a] is a 2021 British-Australian nature documentary television miniseries presented and narrated by David Attenborough. [1] It consists of three episodes.
The series was co-produced by Humble Bee Films and Sealight Pictures for Netflix, the BBC, Stan, and the Nine Network. [2] [3] Sharmila Choudhury served as series producer, with Stephen Dunleavy and Colette Beaudry as Executive Producers. [4] [5] It was originally envisaged as having four episodes, but this was scaled back to three due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [6]
The first episode of Life in Colour aired on 28 February 2021 on BBC One [7] and on 3 July 2021 on Nine Network in Australia. [3]
Viewing data sourced from BARB. [8]
No. | Title | Produced by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) | |
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1 | "Seeing in Colour" | Sally Thomson | 28 February 2021 | 5.70 | |
A male
peacock attempts to woo a mate with his display. Male
mandrills develop brightly-colored faces and posteriors to warn rival males. A male
Costa's hummingbird performs a flight display to attract a female. A male
magnificent bird-of-paradise performs for several females and manages to successfully mate with one. Attenborough uses an
ultraviolet filter to demonstrate how pollinating insects see flowers. A
blue moon butterfly settles disputes with competitors through aerial displays and also displays for females, which have ultraviolet vision. Male
fiddler crabs use their claws to display for females, with a perspective of
polarized light. Fish on the
Great Barrier Reef have evolved specific patterns that are only visible under ultraviolet light.
Peacock mantis shrimps can perceive color faster than any other animal due to having more color receptors, and can also distinguish between polarized and unpolarized light, allowing them to signal mates and warn rivals with scales that reflect polarized light.
Andean flamingos perform courtship dances in the
Atacama Desert and obtain pink pigments from
carotenoids in the algae and shrimp they eat.
Strawberry poison-dart frogs obtain their bright warning coloration from the food they eat, show extensive color variation across their range due to differing diets, and fight intruding rival frogs. | |||||
2 | "Hiding in Colour" | Nick Green | 7 March 2021 | 5.38 | |
A
Bengal tiger hunts
chital deer, which are unable to spot it, but are successfully warned in advance by
grey langur sentries, and it unsuccessfully attempts to hunt
sambar instead. In the
Scottish Highlands,
rock ptarmigan molt into white feathers during the winter to camouflage in the snow and avoid predation, a trait shared by several other animals. Yellow-colored
whitebanded crab spiders break down pigments to change into a white coloration, allowing them to camouflage and ambush prey on white flowers. This also allows them to reflect ultraviolet light, which acts as a signal luring bees towards them. On the African plains,
zebras use their stripes to confuse attacking
cheetahs and ward off biting flies.
Cuban painted snails display
polymorphism by acquiring different colors depending on the plants they eat, foiling potential predators. Insects use many different forms of mimicry, such as the
Danaid eggfly which mimics the colors of the poisonous
African queen butterfly. On the Great Barrier Reef, the
bluestriped fangblenny can change its colors to mimic the young
bluestreak cleaner wrasse, allowing it to bite small pieces off fishes seeking cleaning. In Africa, a hatchling
pin-tailed whydah successfully
parasitizes the broods of
common waxbills by mimicking the mouth patterns of its nestmates. By the
Augrabies Falls of South Africa, a young male
Augrabies flat lizard delays the development of his breeding colors and mimics the coloration of a female to access feeding areas guarded by territorial males. | |||||
3 | "Chasing Colour" | Bridget Appleby | 22 April 2021 | N/A |
The Hindu's Aswathi Pacha praised the series, noting Attenborough's enthusiasm. [9] Common Sense Media gave the series four out of five stars. [10] Yvonne Bohwongprasert's review for the Bangkok Post was generally positive, but criticised the film for failing to mention the "ongoing climate crisis". [11]