Winterwatch review: Anything could happen? Yes, you could fall in love with Britain's natural wonders. And Chris Packham

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“Anything could happen in the next hour,” we were told at the beginning of this week's new run of Winterwatch (BBC2, Tues-Fri, 8pm).

To which your initial response would probably have been: “Oh, come off it.”

Okay, this was a BBC documentary about nature, which we know are beautiful to look at and contain startling facts, but that's mainly about wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Serengeti, or the interesting number of ways in which an orca can kill a seal.

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But this is Winterwatch, anchored firmly in the British Isles, linked live from an RSPB reserve next to Poole Harbour, close to the site of the first ever Scout camp – I mean how much more British and homely could it get?

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams are the presenters of BBC's Winterwatch, which came live from an RSPB reserve in Dorset this week (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams are the presenters of BBC's Winterwatch, which came live from an RSPB reserve in Dorset this week (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)
Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams are the presenters of BBC's Winterwatch, which came live from an RSPB reserve in Dorset this week (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)

As it turned out, it was one of the more eye-opening – and entertaining – hours of TV this week.

There was nature, red in tooth and claw, as kestrels and peregrines and owls swooped and dived on unsuspecting voles.

There were avocets and spoonbills, foxes and badgers, woodmice and magpies, all doing their nature thing in the wild, all at once commonplace and somehow astonishingly extraordinary.

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I mean, what nature novice would have thought you could catch a glimpse of the spoonbill – nature's own kitchen utensil – in our coastal waters?

Chris Packham taught us all about birds' tongues on this week's Winterwatch (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)Chris Packham taught us all about birds' tongues on this week's Winterwatch (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)
Chris Packham taught us all about birds' tongues on this week's Winterwatch (Picture: BBC Studios/Jo Charlesworth)

In fact, the three presenters – Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams – teach you something new every minute.

Who would have thought, for example, that a three-minute lecture on the fascinating features of birds' tongues - “muscular hydrostats” and “keratinised epitheliums” and all – could be so captivating, and all using just simple diagrams it looked like they'd knocked up on Blue Peter?

Meanwhile, there were some beautifully simple, breathtakingly shot films, like the five minutes in the company of Rupert Kirkwood, the 'Lone Kayaker'.

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Rupert, an incredibly spry 65-year-old – paddles himself up to 10 miles off the coast to find and record the wildlife which teems in our waters.

There are Rupert's own shots of humpback whales, minke whales, seals, dolphins and porpoises, but then he finds himself in the midst of a school of Atlantic bluefin tuna in a feeding frenzy – like six-year-olds at a birthday buffet – and your jaw drops to the floor.

Literally yards off the shore, and feet from Rupert's kayak, these enormous fish leap, roll and plunge after their prey in a spectacle you would never suspect could happen in Britain, of all places.

This being the BBC, there can never be entertainment without information and education, and so we get a short briefing about the tuna population, overfishing and what we can do to help the numbers of these enormous fish.

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It's never too long however, before we're off to a night vision camera looking at a fox scratching its backside.

It all makes you terribly proud to be British, in fact. Winterwatch is slightly ramshackle, with Chris, Michaela and Iolo heading into links too early, or talking over each other, and the visual aids are generally the level of a Year 6 presentation.

Meanwhile, there's a wonderful colloquialism to it, making it an inclusive watch, with Iolo telling us “If you want to how to identify a deer, look at its bottom”, as we catch sight of the distinctive heart shape of a Sika deer's rump.

You learn about 'ecotones' and rewilding, and which birds of prey you might see on a country walk.

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And you start to fall in love with crows, and magpies, and woodcock, and even kayaker Rupert, that lone, slightly foolhardy, soul who does his own thing in the oceanic equivalent of the shed at the bottom of the garden.

“Anything could happen in the next hour,” they said – and they were right. I fell in love with Winterwatch.

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