Page 48 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12

THE OCTONAUTS

The programme features
a siphonophore (pictured).
Its colony of specialised
individuals –‘zoids’–
are represented on the
show through beautiful
animation (below).

alien,” Adam explains. were indeed So, I said to my son: “Let’s look it up.”
“But once you learn genuine Soon we found exactly what the real thing
more about it, once you inhabitants looked like. Children being sponges, when
encounter it and maybe of our one appeared on Blue Planet II, my son
get a little scared by it, you planet. One shouted “Siphonophore!” well before David
realise that, no, this is a real episode features Attenborough had a chance to introduce it.
creature. And we’re going to teach a siphonophore, As Adam tells me, this was always the
you a few things about it by the end for example – a bizarre aim. “Very early on, we had anecdotal
of the episode.” collective of organisms joined together evidence that that’s exactly what parents
As I watch these shows over and over to make a single long colony that, in the and kids were doing,” he says. “They were
with my son, the same question keeps show, resembles a string of coloured fairy asking ‘is this real?’ and then they were
returning: “Are they real, Daddy?” At first, lights, floating through the ocean. This going online and checking it out. And that
I hadn’t twigged that all of these animals was a new one on me. was very much always our hope and our
plan – that they would get interested in
marine science via the show. But our job
is not to teach them everything about the
ocean, because that’s not even possible.
“ You realise that this is Our job is to teach them a little bit and
get them interested.”
a real creature. And
Making waves
we’re going to teach you It doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary
but when I compare Octonauts to the
a few things about it by cartoons I watched growing up in the
1980s, it’s like night and day. Not only
the end of the episode.” is it a ripping wheeze, but it has my son

enthralled by the natural world. When he
spots litter, he knows that it can end up in
Adam Idelson, Octonauts producer and writer
the ocean and the sea creatures that live
there might think it’s food. “We don’t
want to make the animals poorly, do we

48 BBC Wildlife December 2018