Walking with Cavemen 

The great follow-up to 'Walking with Dinosaurs' and 'Walking with Beasts', presented by Professor Robert Winston, explains the story of human evolution.

Stars:

Robert Winston, Alec Baldwin, Christian Bradley

Cast

Series cast summary:
Robert Winston	...	Himself - Presenter 4 episodes, 2003
Alec Baldwin	...	Narrator (US version) 4 episodes, 2003
Christian Bradley	...	Various hominids 4 episodes, 2003
Alex Palmer	...	Various hominids 4 episodes, 2003
Oliver Parham	...	Various hominids 4 episodes, 2003
David Rubin	...	Various hominids 4 episodes, 2003
Florence Sparham	...	Various hominids 4 episodes, 2003
Marva Alexander	...	Various hominids 3 episodes, 2003
Rachel Essex	...	Various hominids 3 episodes, 2003
Faroque Khan	...	Various hominids 3 episodes, 2003
Suzanne Cave	...	Various hominids 2 episodes, 2003
Ruth Dawes	...	Various hominids 2 episodes, 2003
Anthony Taylor	...	Various hominids 2 episodes, 2003
Badria Timimi	...	Various hominids 2 episodes, 2003

Storyline

The story of human evolution is told through the stories of representative members of the various species leading up to modern homo sapiens. It is ongoing climate changes that force human ancestors to develop, one by one, the unique characteristics of the modern humans. Though earlier species were superbly successful in their environments they were unsustainable when the environment changes.

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Plot Keywords:

human evolution | evolution | africa | voice over narration | prehistoric times | 

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Taglines:

Eye-to-eye with your ancestors.

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Details

Official Sites:

BBC [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 March 2003 (UK)

Also Known As:

Caminando entre cavernícolas

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Discovery Channel, ProSieben Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (4 episodes)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (2001), the Australopithecus were portrayed via computer graphics and animatronic puppets because of their non-humanlike proportions. In this show, they are all actors wearing extensive makeup (minus the baby Australopithecus, which is of course a puppet). This method sacrificed anatomical accuracy for more expressive and diverse characters.

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Goofs

Since all the ape-men are modern-day actors wearing makeup, this means that several species have the wrong body proportions and also a much taller head.

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Connections

Follows Walking with Prehistoric Beasts (2001)

User Reviews

Potentially good program ruined by ridiculous presentation

I wanted to enjoy the "Walking With Cavemen" series and there were moments that were informative and sufficiently awe inspiring. The atmosphere of a serious look at human evolution was severely compromised, however, by the completely ridiculous insertion of the presenter, Robert Winston, into the action, as if he was traveling back in time to witness our ancestors first hand. Not only does Robert Winston have a silly looking mustache and an annoying manner, but we have to watch him racing about the prehistoric world in a variety of vehicles, as if he was the star of an action movie. In several hilarious moments, we even see Winston exchanging "meaningful" glances with our ape-like ancestors. By the time I saw Winston hovering above Africa, observing our ancestors from a hot air balloon, I was about ready to chuck the DVD out of the window in despair.

Even if you take Winston out of the equation, this documentary is sketchy and implausible at best. The "script-writers" can't seem to resist building narratives out of the lives of our ancestors, for example, in the whole situation with "Lucy" and her baby, which is presented as if it was an actual scenario that took place. Every point that is made is essentially presented as "fact", and while I am no expert on the subject, I found myself immediately questioning how they could possibly know these things. For example, Winston seemed quite insistent that the Neanderthals had "no imagination". Philosophical speculation about imagination being an essential component of consciousness aside, the discoveries of what appear to be burial grounds, complete with residues of garlanded flowers about the skulls of dead Neanderthals, was completely ignored, and would suggest that the Neanderthals did indeed have sufficient imagination to at least have some sort of concept of an afterlife. The documentary went on and on, presenting little in the way of evidence for any of the assertions it put forward or the scenarios that were constructed, which were often embarrassingly cheesy and played for comic effect.

As a work of fiction and imagination, perhaps, the "documentary" did succeed on some level, and the overwhelmingly interesting nature of the subject matter could not be completely sabotaged by the manner of presentation. But even the make-up, acting and special effects employed in the depiction of our ancestors had not progressed to any significant degree from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film made more than thirty years beforehand. Particularly laughable was a moment when several of our ancestors were confronted by a giant and angry gorilla in the prehistoric jungles of Asia, which played out like something from a fifties B-movie about Cavemen vs. the Monsters.

"Walking With Cavemen" is still a mildly entertaining and informative program, if not to be taken entirely seriously as a genuine presentation of science. The less heralded (and unfortunately still unavailable on DVD) Channel 4 presentation "Neanderthal", was a much better effort.