BBC's wildlife film felt like an advert for Warner Bros - but at least it had JK Rowling
Sightings of JK Rowling are rare these days, but she popped up at the end of Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History (BBC One), which was an odd programme because, like some of the creatures depicted, it was a hybrid.
On one level, it was a fun and informative show for younger viewers – perhaps it should have been on a little earlier than 7pm – in which Stephen Fry explored the connections between mythical beasts and real animals. Manatees were likely the inspiration for mermaids, the Loch Ness Monster could be a giant eel, the colossal squid was the inspiration for tales of the kraken, and so on.
Fry learned that vervet monkeys have different alarm calls to warn their troop about birds of prey, snakes and big cats – three primal fears shared by humans, posited the programme, and dragons could be the sum of these: talons and wings, scales and a forked tongue, strong limbs and sharp teeth.
Fry’s travels also took him to the Utah Valley, where he suggested that indigenous Americans discovered dinosaur fossils and took them as proof that dragon-like creatures roamed the earth. In her interview, Rowling said she was fascinated by the fact that different cultures, from different parts of the world and periods of history, dreamed up such similar beasts.
But the show was also an hour of advertising for Warner Bros, which has turned Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts series into a lucrative film franchise. The latest instalment will shortly land in cinemas. A CGI creature from the film, the cute little Niffler, appeared throughout.
The programme titles were written in the same font used in the film, and the visual effects supervisor from the franchise was invited to discuss his work. Fry even visited the Warner Bros Studio Tour outside Watford, gazing in awe at the Hogwarts sets (he is, if you weren’t aware, narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks).
It was not made clear to viewers from the outset that Warner Bros co-produced and co-financed the programme in collaboration with the BBC’s Natural History Unit. Fry walked through the halls of the Natural History Museum which, by no great coincidence, has just finished staging a Fantastic Beasts exhibition in collaboration with Warner Bros.
It was unfortunate that a programme imparting knowledge about the world had such a whiff of sponsored content. And it felt slightly odd to see Rowling enlisted for this promotional wheeze, given that she has been all but erased from the new film trailer over her views on trans rights.
