What does Britain’s favourite TV-viewing Parson Russell Terrier think of Safari Park Adventure, Location Location Location, Country House Rescue, Escape to the Country, and Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild?

Howard Spring reviews his week in TV!

Safari Park Adventure

Safari Park Adventure

This week I watched a show I haven’t seen before, Safari Park Adventure, set in Woburn Safari Park. I liked the sound of it because I thought I stood a good chance of seeing some monkeys. And I love shows about monkeys.

At least I got to see one Barbary Monkey in a tree

And I did get to see some monkeys, including a 16 year old Barbary Monkey called Nelly, who was being pushed around by all the other monkeys. Fortunately, her keeper had worked out a way to feed her when the others weren’t looking, otherwise poor Nelly would never get any lunch. And Nelly also had an upset tummy which was made worse by stress, like the stress of being pushed around by a lot of monkeys. She would just sit way out on the edge of the group, waiting for a bit of food. So her keeper drove up between all the other monkeys and Nelly, so that they couldn’t see Nelly and couldn’t see her getting her special treats (with some tummy medicine in it). This made me a bit sad and I realised that I prefer shows about monkeys when they are playing or climbing in trees.

The Birds of Prey Show

A good bit of the episode was seeing the Birds of Prey Show. I love watching birds fly, so I really enjoyed this bit. It was all about teaching the birds flying skills and giving them their daily exercise. The stars were Edgar the Eagle Owl, and Dodger and Digger (brother and sister, making their debut in the show). I was very happy to see Dodger and Digger do well.

Giraffes can see over the garden wall

And in this same episode, Jake and Icarus the giraffes had to move to the Cotswolds (it was a bit like an episode of Escape to the Country) and the welcome they received from the giraffes there was so lovely, especially from the giraffe called Century. And they all licked each other’s faces, just like Jeff licks all of ours.

And there was a great story about the Zebras and the Eland Antelopes. They all live together, but normally the Zebras will run everyone over with their pretty wild zoomies. So a baby Eland Antelope called Limber had been living apart until she was big and fast enough to outrun them. But when Limber and her mum moved in with the other Elands and the Zebras, a Zebra mare adopted her! They would spend all day together, and then the Zebra would let Limber go to her mum any time she needed a drink. After the tears with Nelly’s story, this was a very happy one.

I liked this show because it had birds and monkeys. But I think it would have been better if the monkeys were playing and climbing trees. I’m also thinking of setting up a GoFundMe for Nelly so that she can buy her own lunch bar.

Location, Location, Location

Location, Location, Location

This is a show about buying houses and I decided to watch it because it said they were going to look for a house in the Isle of Dogs and in Catford. These places sounded so amazing I thought this would have to be a very good show.

Kirsty looking at the coat

Unfortunately it was very misleading as there were no dogs, not even one. And just one cat. And one of the house buyers seemed to be wearing a fur coat or, at the very least, a ridiculous coat. And then, when they showed them a house at Catford (which also sounds amazing!) they kicked up such a strop that they all had to leave.

Going in for a kiss with the lovely cat

And what’s even worse, one of the hosts, called Kirsty, saw a black cat and said, “as if our luck wasn’t bad enough already.” That made everyone mad.

Obviously I will never watch this show again.

Country House Rescue

Country House Rescue

This is a show about people who live in a very big house with not nearly enough dogs in it. The house in this episode also had two sets of stables which did not seem to have any horses in them. In fact, I didn’t even see a cat in the episode.

Empty stables

This episode was about Bantry House in County Cork, Ireland. It was very expensive to maintain (a bit like having a huge ribbies bill) and so a man called Simon came in to help the family work out ways to make more money for ribbies.

Simon’s idea was a pop up restaurant, but they didn’t even serve ribbies

The house was very wonderful, but I could not get over the mystery of no dogs. I think it could fit at least 200. And that’s not even including the empty stables.

I may watch it again, because Human says usually there are dogs.

Escape to the Country

Escape to the Country – all about people who don’t buy houses

I’ve watched this show before, but I decided to watch it again because there are almost always animals in this show. The clue is in the “Country” part.

The cat

The idea behind the show is that some people live in the suburbs and want to move to the country. In this episode, there was a couple who lived with a cat in Bishops Stortford and wanted to quit their jobs and move to the Yorkshire Dales to open a Bed and Breakfast. This is the basic story line of a Hallmark movie, and I watch lots of those on the romance channel, so this sounded promising. Although in those movies the house is usually inherited from some relative they’ve never met, and it’s dusty and romantic (not a shiny barn conversion) and might have a goat (not a Lexus). None of the houses in this show fit that description. And that might be why they didn’t buy one. But I did get to see a sheep.

I will probably watch this again. Just to see if anyone ever buys a house. And because I almost always get to see sheep.

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild

This show was about a family who moved to an island called Rum in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland to take up crofting. This basically means you live on a small farm, or a croft. And living on a croft means you can live off the land. Isn’t that confusing?

The red rooster managed to escape fate … but a white one was not so lucky

Anyway, I started watching this show because there were chickens, and I love watching chickens. But apparently there were too many boy chickens, and so one had to go. I wasn’t sure what this meant until it all went downhill from there. So I changed channels and watched the Cats Protection Lottery advertisement instead. It’s awesome.

The unlucky rooster

I don’t think I will watch this one again. There were no monkeys playing or climbing trees.