They Said It Couldn't Be Done: Too Close For Comfort
(1999)
In front of an audience at the Royal Geographical Society, David Attenborough interviews award-winning cameraman Mike Richards, discussing the hours of patient filming that went into the BBC production, Too Close For Comfort.
The fourth of seven programmes celebrating pioneering natural history documentaries, They Said It Couldn't Be Done: Too Close For Comfort examines the challenges Mike faced, filming in the ever humid West African rainforests.
Exploring the uncanny parallels with our own behaviour, Too Close For Comfort brings to light the amazing intelligence and astonishing skills of man's closest relative, the chimpanzee. Over two years in filming, it charts their intimate society, capturing these highly developed primates as they wash their food, gather drinking water and make use of over nineteen different tools.
Followed by a repeat screening of this production, They Said It Couldn't Be Done: Too Close For Comfort offers an insight into the hours of patient work and numerous difficulties involved in wildlife filmmaking.
David Attenborough
