David Attenborough – Trials of life

4 discs – 583 minutes – Original dvd

The Trials of Life started as David Attenborough’s most ambitious wildlife project, and ended as something really big. First came Life on Earth (1978), then The Living Planet (1984), but when The Trials of Life (1990) arrived the already epic individual series became “The Life Trilogy”, collectively the most impressive documentary achievement in the history of television. Unfortunately the epic has shrunk here, as not only have the credits been removed, but each of the 12 original episodes having been cut from 49 minutes to 28 minutes (though the scene everyone remembers–a whale pursuing its prey right onto the beach–survives).