Child-rearing techniques that terrify and exhilarate

Sumptuous nature series ‘Parenthood’ charts wonderful and weird animal kingdom baby-raising methods when faced with the human capacity for destruction, writes Helen Coffey

- Helen Coffey

“No!” It’s not often I cry out while watching a TV show by myself, but I can’t help it.

A juvenile Cape gannet attempting her first flight has just botched it and crash-landed in the sea. This wouldn’t be a problem, were it not for the fact that she’s now a sitting duck - well, gannet - for the surrounding Cape fur seals, who are eyeing her hungrily. I’m only on episode two of BBC One’s gorgeous new high-production nature series, Parenthood, and already I’ve been radicalised.

The five-part programme, combining the exquisite narration from Sir David Attenborough and sublime visual storytelling we've come to expect from this kind of affair, charts the challenges of child-rearing for a broad breadth of species across the animal kingdom. Created by Silverback Films - the crack team behind Life on our Planet and The Secret Life of Orangutans - the show was painstakingly filmed over three years across six continents and 23 countries, from the grasslands of Botswana to the remote jungles of Bhutan.