chrischapman-47545

This series looks at wildlife, including human, in various parts of the UK over the space of 12 months using a variety of filming techniques. The result is colourful and visually stunning whilst also extremely informative - just the thing to get children out and about and interested in what goes on around them which may otherwise be completely overlooked. Mention must also be made of the high quality script and sympathetic narration. Unfortunately there are only three episodes although there is scope to do many more. This is one of the things that the BBC is best at doing and so I highly recommend it.

While I have respect for Ant as an engineer, and author/writer, this series almost falls into the same traps as many motoring programmes. Obviously staged in parts, it can be simplistic in that only certain car faults are shown and a lot of refurbishment work simply isn't shown. Then vehicles are sold at an upmarket auction which may not always be the best solution. The link to renovating a house for his parents (not ideally suited for them given their age?) is novel but again it is simplified. Ant comes across as a bit of a drama queen and impulsive. At least he treats his audience with some respect in terms of their assumed technical knowledge and doesn't constantly repeat the same issues. Nevertheless it could be significantly better, especially if they ditched the inevitable background music..

I rarely give anything 10 out of 10 but Bangers & Cash definitely deserves it. At the time of writing it is rightly in its 10th series and has generated a spinoff restoration show. What distinguishes it from other series is that it comes across as 100% genuine - not scripted, no irritating characters or background heavy rock music. It is a family show - all the Mathewsons have a wry sense of humour, are real characters and know what they are talking about. The show is handled with both humour and empathy - sometimes people have to sell vehicles as age catches up with them - and often we find out what happened to them once taken by their new owners. Highly recommended.