The Hunt

This series from the BBC is easily one of the best nature documentaries ever made. An introductory episode is followed by five more episodes covering the contest between predators and prey in different types of ecosystem – the Artic, forests, the oceans, open plains, and coasts. There is a final episode on the challenges of conservation.

The filming is quite simply staggeringly good. The filmmakers seem to have been constantly pushing themselves to film new things, and film things seen before in new and more effective ways. Animals are often close up and at eye level with moving cameras, complemented at times by superb footage from the air, giving many sequences a unique immediacy. Polar bears and cheetahs have been filmed many times, but never like this. In contrast, no-one had ever filmed a blue whale feeding before (the filming was carried out under a scientific research permit) and the work stretched over two years until they finally got the footage. Very occasionally the team don't quite get the perfect shot – a tiger kills with a tree between it and the camera, for example – but this mainly serves to remind you that this is all for real.

David Attenborough's commentary is, as usual, extremely well judged and the music is effective and largely enhances the material. The editing, while never too squeamish about showing reality, avoids undue emphasis on the animals' suffering.

The ten minute making of segments at the end of each episode are often as interesting as the programmes themselves, offering a fascinating insight into the amount of work that went into getting some of these sequences, and the elation when they get the shot.

The Hunt is a beautiful, awe-inspiring, moving and informative series. It is hard to imagine how even the BBC wildlife team will be able to surpass this.

This series is spectacular. My kids love it, although it is very scary (and cruel) for little children. Perfect for kids ages 12-16. The camera, the music, and the stories are absolutely amazing. One of the best, if not the best, documentary about Nature that I've ever seen. Do not miss it! 10 / 10

(Flash Review)

Made by the same top notch team from BBC from Planet Earth, this focuses on the predators and their pray and their ability to survive. While the predators often came up short, their successes were tastefully observed. A few bits of footage were reused from Planet Earth and keeps the usual editing structure. It ends with its usual PSA about saving certain animals that are dwindling due to human activity. This was excellent and not as vicious as it may sound.

This tv series is incredible. I'm blown away by the camera work, the scenes they managed to capture and the story!!! They tell a story with each episode or part that just plays on all the emotions. I found myself rooting for the predator, then the prey, then back to the predator, etc. it's just incredible. Easily one of the best things I've ever watched. It's incredibly raw and brutal at times. Not with blood and guts, nothing explicit, just the story!!! Have I mentioned the story??? Haha, wonderful. 10/10.

David Attenborough is nothing short of a national treasure. He may apparently dislike the term, but it is hard to not say that about such a great presenter who has contributed significantly to some of the best programmes (of the documentary genre and overall) the BBC has ever aired/produced.

It is really hard picking favourites, let alone a definite favourite, among what Attenborough has done because he has done so many gems, it is the equivalent of trying to choose your favourite ice cream flavour or your favourite operatic role (for examples) and finding you can't pick. To me though, 'The Hunt' is up there with his crowning achievements and one of the best documentaries ever viewed, and as has been said already there are a lot of great ones. It has everything that makes so much of his work so wonderful, hence some of the reiteration of my recent reviews for some of his work (being on a nature documentary binge in my spare time), and deserves everything great that has been said about it.

First and foremost, 'The Hunt' looks amazing. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic with some of the shots being unique for a documentary series, making one forget that it is a series. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery is pure magic, similarly really admired the wide-ranging diversity of the different landscapes rather than restricting it to just one habitat. The music score fits very well, never overly grandiose while never being inappropriate.

Again, like so many Attenborough nature/wildlife documentaries, 'The Hunt' fascinates, teaches, moves, entertains and transfixes. In terms of the facts there was a very good mix of the known ones and the unknown, some facts being familiar to us while going into detail about the different predators, what they do, how they adapt to their environments and why they act that way. Like with a lot of Attenborough, found myself learning a lot despite not being a slouch when it comes to knowledge of these different predators. Polar bears and cheetahs for example have rarely been portrayed in so illuminating a way.

Narration by Attenborough helps significantly. He clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. The "behind the scenes/making of" scenes too gave some humanity to the series and allowed us to get to know those behind the camera as well as in front.

The predatory animals are big in personality and wide in range. The conflict has genuine tension and suspense, there is some fun and a lot of emotionally powerful moments done with a lot of tear-jerking pathos. Found myself really caring for what they're told and the wildlife. Like much of Attenborough/BBC's other work, each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

In summary, incredible and a must. Anybody's Attenborough nature/wildlife documentary collection is not complete without 'The Hunt'. 10/10 Bethany Cox