''Dolphins - Spy in the Pod'' is a British factual television series that was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on 2 January 2014. The two-part series was narrated by

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

and produced by John Downer Productions. The series was also broadcast by

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

in the US.

Production

Approximately 900 hours of filming took place over the course of one year. Remote-control underwater "spy cameras" disguised as sea creatures - including dolphins, ray, sea turtle, tuna, squid, nautilus and pufferfish - allowed the film-makers to get close-up footage of natural dolphin behaviour.

Bottlenose dolphin Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common ...

spinner dolphin The spinner dolphin (''Stenella longirostris'') is a small dolphin found in off-shore tropical waters around the world. It is famous for its acrobatic displays in which it rotates around its longitudinal axis as it leaps through the air. It is a ...

s, humpback dolphins and

killer whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white pa ...

s were filmed for the series. The documentary is known for speculating that dolphins "deliberately get high on puffer fish toxins".

Episode list

Reception

Ratings

The first episode was watched by 20.4% of the viewing audience. According to overnight figures, the second episode was watched by 3.56 million viewers, with an audience share of 15.1%.

Critical reception

Ellen E. Jones of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' compared the second episode to "the visual equivalent of one of those "Sounds of the Ocean" CDs that insomniacs use to drift off. Nothing but calm blue seas as far as the eye can see, and the soothing Scots coo of narrator David Tennant." Benji Wilson of ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' also gave it four stars out of five and said his only criticism was its format being too similar to ''Penguins: Spy in the Huddle'', a BBC series broadcast the previous year. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' Sam Wollaston called the narration "punny". In February 2014, animal rights campaigners from

Animal Defenders International Animal Defenders International (ADI), founded 1990, has offices in US, UK, Colombia, Peru and South Africa; education and public awareness campaigns to protect animals in captivity and wild animals and their environments. ADI 's campaigns focus on ...

accused the filmmakers of exploiting a captive dolphin at a marine park in

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

to obtain some of the footage used in the series. The claims were rejected by the BBC and John Downer Productions, as the dolphin used was a tame individual free to move in the open ocean and the marine park.

Home media

The series was released on DVD on 10 February 2014 and on Blu-ray on 17 February 2014.

References

External links

* * {{Radio Times, programme/crdmgq/dolphins---spy-in-the-pod, title=''Dolphins - Spy in the Pod'' 2014 British television series debuts 2010s British documentary television series English-language television shows Discovery Channel original programming