Review for Baboons With Bill Bailey

Bill Bailey is steadily forging himself a name in documentaries following on from his work on Wild Thing I Love You and others he has now turned his attention to the baboons of South Africa. The series of eight epsodes follows three very unique Baboon troups all with their own problems and stories.

These three troops Bailey describes as "The highway robbers of the Smitz troop, the rustic rascals the Tokai troop and the urbanites of Da Gama." Each of them are featured in the episodes though sometimes one of more heavily featured depending on what seemed to be going on with them. The Smitz troop are located on the highways and wait for sightseers and tourists to stop by before they pounce. The Baboons show fascinating intelligence, able to open car doors and sneak in for whatever the family had in store for their picnic. At times this is quite scary as the unsuspecting tourist discovers a Baboon (who Bailey tells us are strong enough to take on a lion and take down a grown human) and then must fight to get them out.

The Tokai troop are almost a traditional troop of Baboons, living in what are left of the forests in the area. They also have problems with other Baboons trying to enter and also the struggles to find food in the area. This is not a problem with the Da Gama troop who spend their time upturning dustbins for scraps, pilfering vegetable patches and sneaking into restaurants to raid the kitchen. Each troop is shown to be quite adept at adapting to their surrounding and it is sometimes amusing to see that it is often the Baboons who gain the upper hand over the humans.

However, the show does show just what happens when man steps into their territory with new houses and neighbourhoods and with the lack of space for the Baboons some are just trying to exist. Bill Bailey's presenting and commentary throughout is excellent, he isn't exactly David Attenborough, but he is warm and friendly. It would be great if this lead to a regular series, much like the Monkey Life program concerning Dorset's Monkey World. The DVD includes all eight episodes... and that is it. This is a shame as I expected some additional footage, maybe some bloopers from Bailey or a commentary from him. Sadly all we are given is the show.

  Baboons with Bill Bailey is a great show that is both informative and entertaining. If you enjoy nature programs, but don't want to be bogged down with information or science facts then this is a great show. And if you've ever had a monkey take off your wing mirror in a safari park then maybe this show will make you feel lucky that they didn't steal your sandwiches too!