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10/10 - Primates
David Attenborough recites a litany of fine qualities: "Sharing, experimenting, empathy, planning, intelligence, teaching, learning..." - all characteristic of the higher primates we're studying tonight. What has been an extraordinary series ends with a comparatively low-key finale. But you'll sigh when you see the scene where a male chimp allows a female to borrow the tool he's using so she can smash open a nut - there's something so recognisable about the body language. That's the thing with primates - we share so many genes with them, it's hard not to project our values onto them, too. So when we see the vicious family politics of Hamadryas baboons in Ethiopia, with top males savaging members of their female harem for the slightest indiscretion, it's hard not to feel disapproving. And as we marvel at how like us the creatures here are - look at the orangutan making an umbrella, listen to the gibbon's lovely call - we can give thanks for a series that has brought such wonders to our screens weekly. We'll miss it.
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