One of the most influential things (apart from Dr Who) that sent me on the road to being a cryptozoologist was David Attenborough's 1975 series Fabulous Animals. This was a great six-part children’s series on cryptozoology. Each episode tackled a different subject such as sea monsters, dragons, unicorns and ape men. There was also a BBC book that accompanied the show. I still have mine (albeit in a very poor state of repair) but it turns up on E-BAY sometimes.
The show was studio-bound with Sir Dave surrounded by fossils, paintings and ancient books like Edward Topsell's History of Four Footed Beasts and Serpents. There were great pieces of film such as Dave hunting Komodo dragons in Zoo Quest.
Most of David Attenborough's TV shows have been released. But not so Fabulous Animals. I wrote to the BBC last year to see if there were any plans for a DVD release but apparently there were not.
The British public pay their TV licence and fund the BBC. Ergo those programmes are ours, they belong to us, and we should be able to see them whenever we want! This is ever more acute with the sewage that pollutes our TV screens these days.
I hereby start a campaign to get the BBC to release Fabulous Animals as a DVD in 2010.
I urge all CFZ followers to write to the BBC asking for them to release this excellent show, which has languished for too long in the musty vaults of Television Centre.
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