Here's a short clip of David Attenborough's encounter with the Bower Bird, a creature with the most elaborate courtship ritual in nature. Apart from the breathtaking loveliness and strangeness of the bird's behaviour, what impresses is Attenborough's calm, admiring commentary. He also knows when to let the pictures speak for themselves.
Younger, fizzier telly presenters would shriek and laugh and make camp deflationary comments when faced with such material, because that's what they do, and what their producers encourage them to do. They fill the space where wonder, humility and knowledge once prevailed.
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