Evolution review – with this TV miracle, David Attenborough’s successor is well and truly crowned

The brief

Evolution is a coronation. With this new, five-part BBC nature documentary, the presenter Chris Packham is effectively crowned the successor to David Attenborough. And a worthy one, I think most would agree. Packham has all the great man’s passion for his subject and the willingness and ability to share his knowledge as accessibly as possible. He treads the line between assuming nothing and not infantilising his audience as nimbly as Attenborough does. Evolution takes one animal an episode and delves into a particular aspect of it and the evolutionary journey it represents. Packham opens with elephants and, specifically, their trunks; a perfect example of a selection advantage that has, in…