From tales of giant tortoises trampling tents to almost getting shot, this is a relentlessly entertaining documentary about one of David Attenborough\u2019s greatest pieces of TV<\/p>\n
Life on Earth has a good claim for the top spot in any list of the best British TV shows of all time. A giant leap forward from previous wildlife programmes, it gave us the David Attenborough epic as we now know it: every expansive, expensive, dazzlingly informative BBC nature series since has used a template that Life on Earth created. It\u2019s a classic, a landmark, a totem of the creative power the Beeb once had. It\u2019s now 50 years since it went into production, and it\u2019s Attenborough\u2019s 100th birthday this week. As TV anniversaries go, this is a weighty one.<\/p>\n
You might worry that a retrospective film about Life on Earth could be an hour of solemn awe and hushed reverence. What you actually get from Making Life on Earth: Attenborough\u2019s Greatest Adventure is a relentlessly entertaining cavalcade of top-drawer anecdotes, more like the sort of gossipy celebration that might commemorate the making of Jaws or Star Wars. Victoria Bobin\u2019s rollicking film is the story of a giant pop-culture moment, a gang of mates remembering how they sensed conditions were right to create a blockbuster masterpiece \u2013 if they were willing to flirt with failure and even death to get there.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/68b608321093b4ae8234b1bc70e0be0d25f57520\/134_0_3692_2954\/master\/3692.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=8f0ea7e76b54716b5b6b69e61cfe5332\" "\\"Making")
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