All posts tagged: Packham

The ascent of Packham | Radio Times

The ascent of Packham | Radio Times

Published by Daniella Wilson

Add Evolution to your watchlist Every day is a school day for Chris Packham. As he leans forward to meet the gaze of the Radio Times photographer, he adjusts his modesty pouch to make sure said modesty is fully contained. And shortly after doing so, it becomes clear that two hours dressed (or, rather, undressed) as a version of his prehistoric self has given him food for thought. “What would it be like to have looked like that?” he asks himself before running through the available data: “We need to dispel the myth that cave men and women were hairy savages, eating raw food. To imagine they were covered in mud and unshaven slobs is nonsense. They’d have been groomed; they’d have had hairstyles tied to certain rituals or maybe time of year.” Once the prosthetics – which took two make-up artists almost two hours to apply – are finally removed, Packham is keen to make it clear that this has been no minor undertaking “for a 65-year-old man who’s loathed his body since he …

Chris Packham: ‘I’d throw myself in front of a T. Rex to be consumed’

Chris Packham: ‘I’d throw myself in front of a T. Rex to be consumed’

Published by skeptic

Chri​s Packham, in his new series Evolution, holds a replica skull of Dorudon atrox, an ancient relative of dolphins BBC Studios/Freddie Claire In Evolution, an ambitious new five-part programme, broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham fleshes out the evolutionary backstories of five beloved animals. From elephants to ostriches, he takes us all the way back to the last universal common ancestor of all life on Earth and, with the help of CGI, introduces us to pivotal ancestors along the way. He spoke to New Scientist about how he hopes that powerful new science and great CGI can help us move on from just loving nature to truly taking care of it. Penny Sarchet: Chris, congratulations on the new show. What drew you to this project and the subject of evolution? Chris Packham: We like a challenge, basically. We’d risen to that challenge with our previous series Earth, looking at enormous time spans and inconceivable events. To take something that big, that complex, and make it comprehensible was a challenge, and Earth was very popular. I think people …

Chris Packham transforms into a caveman on this week’s cover

Chris Packham transforms into a caveman on this week’s cover

Published by Daniella Wilson

For decades, Chris Packham has encouraged us to look more closely at the natural world, and more recently he has been asking us to think differently about our place within it. That combination of curiosity and conviction has made him one of the most distinctive voices on British television. Our cover story this week finds Packham as you’ve never seen him before. It’s a terrific interview by Pete Paphides, accompanied by Richard Ansett’s striking photography. We caught up with him to talk about his new BBC series Evolution. As always, he is prepared to provoke when he believes it matters, and yet never loses sight of the wonder that first drew him to the natural world as a child. Recalling an encounter while filming his new series, he says that if someone had told his six-year-old self that one day he would be swimming alongside wild dolphins in the Bahamas “he would have burst”. It’s a lovely moment of perspective from someone who still sees the world with childlike amazement. Finally, everyone at Radio Times …