Prime Buys Attenborough Dumbo Doco

Prime has licensed the high-rating BBC documentary Attenborough and the Giant Elephant.

The hour-long special investigates the life of the large mammal that inspired Disney’s Dumbo.

“One could easily have imagined Attenborough and the Giant Elephant (BBC One), the bittersweet tale of the world’s first animal superstar – Jumbo the elephant, London Zoo’s foremost attraction in Victorian times – filling a prime-time slot in the Christmas or Boxing Day schedules,” The Daily Telegraph observed.

“But perhaps it was deemed too sad. Too liable to dial down Yuletide high spirits with its archaeological examination of unintentional animal cruelty and the appalling ignorance of generations past.”

It drew 4.9 million viewers in the UK when it played in a 9.00 slot usually reserved for drama and finished second after ITV’s Coronation Street (5.9 million).

It’s not know when Prime will screen the doco but expect it to be in an evening slot, like its Prime Planet showcase.

This month the BBC aired another Attenborough special, Attenborough and the Giant Sea Dragon, which uses imaging technology and CGI to bring to life a 200 million-year-old fossil discovered on the Jurassic coast of Britain.