London Zoo: An Extraordinary Year, review - could filming animals be the future of pandemic-era TV?
Along with wine delivery companies, makers of domestic wildlife documentaries are another sector to have thrived during the pandemic. Camera crews can’t get close to other humans but they can film animals, hence the sudden proliferation of farming and zoo series on our screens. London Zoo: An Extraordinary Year (ITV) was the best of the wild bunch so far.
This lovingly made two-parter went inside the historic Regent’s Park zoo and its sister site, Whipsnade, under lockdown, watching a skeleton staff care for more than 500 species. Well, they can’t all work from home when there are 20,000 hungry mouths to feed. Try doing that over Zoom. Your computer would get covered in hay.
For these admirably dedicated keepers, this wasn’t a job, it was a vocation. They were clearly smitten with their charges. Gemma and Meg tenderly cared for Oni the pregnant okapi, doing her ultrasound scans via videocall. Alex was weepy because her family of sea lions, who she’d been looking after for 16 years, were moving to another zoo. Sensing her upset, they hugged her with their flippers.
Most dramatically, after hearing that one of the big cats in New York’s Bronx Zoo had caught coronavirus, the London team were alarmed to discover that Asiatic lion Indi was sick. Thankfully, it wasn’t Covid – just a meat bone that had gone down the wrong way. We’ve all been there.
My family are members of London Zoo, partly to support it, partly to help beat the constant crowds. It was poetic and poignant to see it so empty: the animals un-looked at, the ice creams un-dropped, the tears un-cried. At least the elephants got a frozen fruit lolly, even if it was wheely bin-sized.
This charming film was lifted out of the ordinary by the unique nature of the circumstances it documented and the absorbing stories it told. Narration by Stephen Fry, though a tad twee at times, added an extra sheen of quality.
The wildlife was the star of the show but the keepers came a close second. It made me realise how much I’ve missed taking my children to see these majestic animals. As the Vera Lynn soundtrack went, we’ll meet again.
