STARS: Donal MacIntyre

STORY:

I love watching documentaries on subjects that interest me, especially when released by the BBC. If you are curious to learn how our weather systems work, the powerful forces that drive it, and the way we are dominated by it, then this is a great DVD to own. This would be a great gift for any age - who hasn’t experienced the effects of weather in their lives, good or bad? We are taken on a journey to the four corners of the globe (always wanted to say that!) in ORDER to experience extreme weather.

Our host is Donal MacIntyre who allows himself to be the guinea-pig in all manner of experiments. He gets harnessed into a wind tunnel, parachutes onto an arctic iceflow then dives beneath one, joins a bizarre footrace across the Sahara, gets locked into a coolroom, visits the wettest place on earth and faces a raging torrent of water. This isn’t all he experiences, but you soon realise how helpless humans are when weather conditions get nasty. This documentary also seeks out interviews with people who have lived through deadly weather phenomena, and some of the more bizarre moments - i.e. “Hey honey, it’s raining apples!” The fascinating thing is that it’s all explainable, if not entirely predictable, just ask any weather forecaster. State-of-the-art 3D animations help us understand what is going on inside our amazing weather systems. There are four hour-long episodes, each one dealing with an element of the weather: Wind, Wet, Hot and Cold. I found it compulsive viewing, and was surprised to see that Melbourne’s freak dust storm back in the 1980’s rated a mention. Seeing an aerial view of the cloud approaching the city was quite spectacular and, as with everything in this documentary series, only possible when conditions are right.

EXTRAS

The extras are few, but I don’t think this DVD package suffers. There is a 15 minute interview with `motormouth’ Donal MacIntyre, in which he barely takes a breath. Better to listen to him when he’s reading a script, I think!

There’s also a biography of Donal in case you are not sick of him by this stage. And an original score which Donal has nothing to do with, thankfully!

OVERALL

I recommend this DVD package, as I would anything the BBC produce. This is an interesting series, and would appeal to any age. Presented in 16:9 aspect, DD 2.0. Stereo is adequate for the purpose. I’m happy to realise that my teeny little patch of turf in the southern hemisphere is safe from tornadoes and hurricanes, at least. I am taking up swimming lessons just in case, though!