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I found this rather unsatisfactory in many ways. The presenter (like so many others) had the irritating mannerism of speaking very slowly and emphatically as if to an infant class. The technique of having non-speaking actors as a backdrop to the narrative was almost comic: Captain Cook bidding farewell to family (long, anguished look); Captain Cook receives his first command (jolly smirk and puffed-out chest); Captain Cook sets an example to his men (chomps resolutely on scurvy-beating sauerkraut they've refused to eat); Captain Cook feels the strain of command (stamps about, tearing things up, while his greying hairdo becomes increasingly disarranged.) It's much cheaper, of course, to have actors who don't actually speak, as they get paid so much less; but it cheapens the production too, I think.
This could have been so good: the visit to the Hydrographer of the Navy (not far away at Taunton down yer in Zummerzet) gave an enthralling glimpse of Cooke's exquisitely-drawn and accurate charts - I'd have like more on this, and on mapping and charting in general, from the curator. In fact, I'd have liked more from most of the expert contributors such as Andrew Lambert, and several Australian academic naval historians whose comments were reduced to a few sentences. The theme was 'the man behind the legend': but this was nearly all supposition on the part of the presenter; Andrew Lambert, who could have developed the points much more cogently, had his comments ruthlessly clipped.
Cook's adventures would, in fact, make for very powerful drama if they were written as a proper screenplay with actors allowed to develop the role. As it was, instead of supporting the narrative, the flitting background figures were merely an irritant. Much better to have cut the unsatisfactory drama all together and concentrated on what the experts had to say and confine the visuals to the spectacular scenery and Cook's own seminal and unique creations that revealed a meticulous, not to say obsessive nature.
I feel that you have either to make an in-depth documentary or a proper drama, but trying to combine the two is rarely wholly successful.
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Anna
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