On my daily watch today I decided to take a look at a BBC documentary called Wild Arabia with first episode titled Sand, Wind and Stars. What a dramatic title! It explores the animals’ lives and habitats also looks into the lives of the Bedouin people. It was an interesting watch, mainly to do with the animals and the beautiful scenery. However, as a whole it was trying too hard to be a David Attenborough documentary.

As a documentary, the part with the Desert Fox and the Arabian fat-tailed scorpion was exciting and intriguing, particularly how the scorpion has a UV sensor to hide from the fox. The camel festival showed the cultural element that is required in all documentaries. It was a strange concept that having two of your camels ride at same speed together showed great skill and knowledge of your camels. I feel so Western saying that but actually we do same with our dogs and cats – it’s just a change of animal. It did spark my interest in the history of the Bedouin people but that’s my inner historian coming out.

Let us see what Episode Two brings; maybe less of a textbook documentary and more of an exploration documentary.