LIFE ON THE FEN EDGE – WITH SIR DAVID ATTENBRADLEY
EPISODE 4: THE CUMULUS DYNASTY
from the BBC, the British Bradcasting Corporation
Dusk
On the southern edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens.
As the sun dips below the horizon, voluptuous clouds skud with the wind across what at first glance appears to be a live action Turner painting, but lacking the bridges and the ships.
Clouds at higher altitude seem static and yet we know they too are moving gently as the wind picks up their fluffy forms and buffets them across the sky.
As the clouds darken and others catch the last glow of the sun’s burning ember we begin to wonder. Why has the British Bradcasting Corporation hired a narrator for this particular sequence. It is one of nature’s great mysteries. Unlocking those mysteries is my forte and yet sitting in this sound both with the apparently endless video stream of those clouds one struggles to find a key.
There are no Great White Sharks here, no Orca waking a seal from its lullaby, nor Cleesiastical herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Serengeti. This is no secret life of plants, not Blue Planet, although admittedly there were a few patches of blue in the sky earlier in the day.
But, now, as the sun dips below the horizon once again, we begin to nod off, dreaming of an end to this episode or perhaps something startling to appear on that very horizon. A Gold Eagle, or even just a Kestrel would do. Perhaps a great flock CGI pterodactyls, but no, it’s just clouds. Cloud after cloud after blinking cloud.
And then just as we begin to nod off, another bloody cloud. When will it end? When will they finally let me retire? Maybe this is purgatory, maybe I’ve actually died and am now trapped in some kind of televisual limbo awaiting the eternal fate of my immortal soul. But, as I told you on Desert Island Discs, I don’t believe in any of that claptrap. Give me oblivion any day. Anything but these bloody clouds…
LIFE ON THE FEN EDGE – WITH SIR DAVID ATTENBRADLEY
EPISODE 1: I Heard a Murmur
EPISODE 2: Goldfinch Dynasty
EPISODE 3: Young People’s Beat Combo
EPISODE 4: The Cumulus Dynasty