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TELEVISIONEDITOR SUE YEAP
• sue.yeap@wanews.com.au Thursday, December 29, 2011 THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
5
T
he word safari can conjure a
plethora of images. Some see
it as a romantic exploration
of another world; lush untamed
landscapes with equally exotic
wildlife, stretching for miles to the
dusky horizon. Others imagine the
ultimate adrenalin rush, going
head to head with one of the Big
Five — lion, elephant, buffalo,
rhino or leopard.
While these impressions of
Africa are etched firmly in the
Western psyche, the method of
capturing the moment has
significantly changed. The rifles
have been replaced by cameras, the
“trophies” on the wall replaced
with photographs.
As “a white man born in
Swaziland”, actor Richard E. Grant
admits the history of safari and
hunting in its historical home of
Kenya makes him uncomfortable,
but the lingering passion for his
homeland and a lack of knowledge
about the subject, piqued his
interest.
The result is a fascinating
two-part documentary tracing the
roots of safari in East Africa; from
its British colonial beginnings and
boom days as a “glamorous” sport
to the modern zeitgeist of eco
tourism, photo tours and wildlife
conservation.
“The transformation from
shooting big game animals for
sport, skins, horns and trophies, to
photo ‘shooting’ safaris makes for
an extraordinary journey;
reflecting the changing attitudes of
society and the emergence of a
global desire to conserve wildlife
rather than kill it all off,” Grant
said.
“The history of safari is
intertwined with the colonisation
of Kenya, independence and the
establishment of globally famous
game parks.
“Exploring the landscape and
meeting key figures gave me a
much deeper understanding of how
safari has transformed.”
Grant starts at the foundation of
hunting in Nairobi, where British
aristocrats began boarding the
Lunatic Express in 1899; a train on
the trade route that took aspiring
adventurers into the wild.
The “dangerous and bloody, yet
romantic and luxurious” quest
soon caught on, attracting figures
from US president Theodore
Roosevelt in 1907, to the British
Royal family — all looking to bag
the Big Five.
Hunting reached its heights in
the 1920s, when competitive
big-game hunters, affairs and
luxury thrived. Ernest Hemingway
revived the pursuit in the 1950s
after the WWII-era lull, with a
series of stories and personal
exploits. Hollywood soon followed
and its glamorous portrayal is still
remembered today.
Grant examines these points and
the allure of the hunt, interspersed
with rare 50 to 100-year-old
archival footage and interviews
with modern-day professional
hunters, descendants of the
original players and indigenous
trackers. He found that Kenya’s
ban on hunting in 1977 changed the
game forever, and paradoxically,
ivory traders and big-game hunters
introduced the first conservation
rules in order to protect their
interests. “Ironically, the hunting
ban in Kenya led to uncontrolled
poaching and big game numbers
were devastated,” he said.
“There is an argument that by
controlling hunting, more wildlife
is conserved.
“Though why anyone would like
to shoot an animal in order to have
its head stuffed on a wall in the
21st century is beyond me.”
The History of Safari with
Richard E. Grant airs Monday at
8.30pm on ABC1.
New focus for safari
Rifles in the wild have been replaced by cameras, Louise Baxter reports
TRADITIONAL Actor Richard E. Grant during filming of his two-part documentary, The History of Safari.
Happy Endings
TODAY, 7.30PM,
SEVEN/GWN7
Happy Endings’ writers love to
try to introduce new words into
our lexicon. A few episodes ago
they gave us “chicksand” and
today it is “gaycist” — a straight
person who thinks all gay
people are the same. Brad gets
hit with the label when he tries
to set up Max with a gay
colleague, even though they
have nothing in common.
Penny’s attempts to channel
her inner She-Ra and face her
fears get derailed when the
super-competitive Jane starts
attending the same
self-defence classes. The funny
and, at times, cringeworthy
set-ups come thick and fast but
so little is made of them that
you can be forgiven for
wondering what the point is.
Even the main storyline, about
Dave and Alex reassessing their
failed engagement when Dave
starts to miss their old
apartment, is played for cheap
laughs rather than any future
story development.
The People’s
Supermarket
TODAY, 8.30PM, ABC1
Astounded by the huge amount
of food wasted by the Britain’s
big four supermarket chains,
chef Arthur Potts Dawson sets
out to develop a co-operative
community store. The idea is
that residents will join the
community store and commit
to working for four hours a
month without pay, and in
return they will receive a
discount and feel good about
supporting local producers. His
passion for the cause is
reminiscent of Jamie Oliver’s
Ministry of Food, and there are
plenty of eye-opening
moments that should get
audiences thinking. The most
astounding could be when he
creates a five-course meal for
60 people entirely from food he
has liberated from supermarket
bins.
CSI: NY
TODAY, 9.30PM, NINE/WIN
The CSI franchise may be
getting tired and predictable
after so many years, but there is
no denying that the New York
spin-off is still one of the more
stylish forensic procedurals
around. The crime-fighting
team face a puzzle when a
snappily-dressed professional
killer walks into a bar, kills a
sinner, a saint and a student
before kidnapping a beautiful
woman and disappearing.
Everything plays out by the
book, including a personal
connection between a
victim and the CSI team
and a killer-with-a-
conscience side story, and
even occasional viewers
should have the baddie picked
well before the end.
TIFFANY FOX
R E M O T E
PAT R O L
FREE-TO-AIR
E
veryone wonders how they
will act when they meet their
idol; they hope they will be
able to remember their own name,
hold back gushing tears and at
least form a whole sentence. For 16
young men who dreamt of
becoming professional cricketers
meeting Allan Border was
probably just like that. It would
have been even more terrifying
considering he is known in many
circles as Captain Grumpy, thanks
to his stern captaining style in the
moustachioed 80s.
It was certainly the case for
Crawley’s David Vernon. He joined
fellow West Australians Chris
Chellew and Jake Fawcett, all 21, to
travel to Brisbane to train with
Border and some of the game’s
greats as part of Foxtel’s new
reality TV show Cricket Superstar.
“I was a little nervous at the
start because I had heard a few
stories about him being Captain
Grumpy but he was different to
that,” he said. “We saw a different
side to him. He was happy and
would share things with us.
“Because I am a bowler I rate
Brett Lee pretty highly. I met him
during one of our masterclass
sessions. I was a little starstruck, a
little lost for words at times but
he’s a really nice guy and gave me
a few words of advice.”
Vernon started playing cricket at
the age of five and said it was the
key to making friends at all of the
new schools he attended while his
family travelled throughout
regional WA and Queensland.
He has been sworn to secrecy
about the winner of the show. He
also plans to keep playing cricket
this year.
“I think playing for Australia is
every cricketer’s dream rather
than a goal. I will be studying next
year and playing grade cricket for
the University of WA,” he said.
Cricket Superstar’s opening is
impressive, starting with a
dramatic montage accompanied by
swelling music.
Former Australian captain
Ricky Ponting appears in the first
five minutes saying he wished he
had been given an opportunity like
this when he was a lad.
In the first two episodes the top
15 cricket superstar contenders are
selected.
Ritual humiliation is all part of
reality TV but the eliminations are
the most cruel. Each time two or
three boys are picked from the fold
before one of them is sent home
nursing their crushed dreams.
Cricket Superstar host Lee
Furlong, who hosted Football
Superstar, said she loved hosting
the show, adding there were some
additional drawcards for female
viewers.
“They are a group of good
looking guys; the women behind
scenes on the show commented
quite a bit,” she said.
“Favourite would have to be
Mason Crozier from Victoria.”
Cricket
Superstar, airs
on January 4
at 4.30pm
on Fox8.
Would-be superstars step up to the crease
MEGAN BAILEY
HOST Lee
Furlong
SUPERSTAR WANNABES David Vernon, Chris Chellew, Jake Fawcett.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
160 158 170 176 151 169 175 162 170 157 182 172 178 165 170 181 182 163 167 187 163 167 181 167 178 170 208 200 205 158 153 170 170 178 197 164 167 174 185 200 156 159 187 163 165
NO. TIMES DRAWN
NO. WEEKS SINCE DRAWN
4 3 7 4 4 0 1 1 0 1 2 0 0 9 4 5 3 0 8 0 1 6 2 3 2 13 14 6 1 3 8 1 3 4 0 1 5 0 5 1 0 2 10 8 2(Figures from Draw No. 1 to 932)
Draws 1 to 608 (11 October 2005) based on 6 winning numbers and 2 supplementary numbers. From Draw 609 (18 October 2005) based on 7 winning numbers and 2 supplementary numbers.