The Cheats - The Frozen Planet

[DTCwordfan]

So David Attenborough has been caught with his proverbial filming pants down by admitting that the brilliant photography of the Polar Bear giving birth in its cave in winter conditions in the Frozen Planet.

Apparently, they filmed that in some Dutch zoo and then spliced the images into "bbbbrrrrrrrrrrr" cold shots of the Arctic.

Not quite kosher - is it? Your views and does it devalue some fantastic film footage?

Reference was the Beeb 6pm News.

[jno]

it doesn't devalue the series, but I wish they'd acknowledged it at the time (though they were the ones who actually broke the news later). They could have ended with a Freeze Frame section showing their film crew gallantly kitting up to pay for their tickets at the zoo entrance.

[jackthehat]

Given what happened on Svalbard.....I'm not surprised that caution was exercised when filming .

No, it doesn't devalue anything.

[Aqualung]

The BBC often do it when they make documentaries.

[Postdog]

Bloody hell, does it matter!? The rest of it obviously was genuine and was the muts nuts!

[cathfromsaron]

by jove, not cricket!

[woofgang]

if they thought it was the right way to do it then why not say so?

[jackthehat]

Had they spray-painted a grizzly-bear white.....it might have been 'cheating'.....but a mother PB was filmed giving birth to baby PBs that is not disputed.

[EvianBaby]

No, it doesn't devalue it. It still saw and learnt more than I would without having seen the programme.

[DTCwordfan]

I love the concept of spray painting a polar bear - there has been some quibbling as well that they implied PBs lived in Antartica by the mixing of the polar cap footage....

[netibiza]

Just like when Bear Grylls was chased by a brown bear (it turned out to be an actor in a costume) but on the other hand it would be too dangerous to use the real thing.

[DTCwordfan]

There was that recent documentary on Bears in Minnesota which was amazing - there was a Californian one shot at a similar time and the lead on that film apparently ended up in the bear's stomach......

[jno]

I thought they distinguished Arctic and Antarctic footage quite clearly (mainly by saying "Meanwhile..." halfway through the programme)

[pusskin]

It makes no difference what so ever to me. Its still all so fantastic with nature in its glory DT

[Kayless]

No most of it's genuine. Why do people always focus on the negative??

[deggers316]

with the shots they took of the baby bears i would have expected it to be in an artifical enviroment, no suprise or revalation there, great series

[Mattk]

Haven't seen the programme but it sounds to me like this is much ado about nothing. It is showing a polar bear being born - doesn't really matter where!

[jno]

much as I enjoy the BBC, and the series, I think it does matter. Viewers were led to believe this was all happening in the Arctic, and it wasn't. This was less than transparent.

[Mattk]

but surely the point is that it IS happening in the Arctic?

OK the footage isn't from there but is 100% indicative of what is happening there.

[jno]

'indicative' isn't really good enough for a documentary - especially one that shows 10-minute segments at the end of each instalment demonstrating how difficult it was to film it all. The sequence was fine, but they should have said where it came from, or at any rate that it wasn't filmed in the Arctic and why (their explanation was perfectly reasonable, after all).

Not disgraceful but, like DT says - not quite kosher.

[missprim]

After watching Frozen Planet on Sunday afternnon (R) I commented to my daughter that I hope someone wins a prize at the TV awards for the photography on this programme as it's just spectacular. I hope the news that some footage was made in a zoo doesn't affect their chances.