Make no bones about it: dinosaurs are a perennial big deal.
As passionate palaeontologist Dr Nizar Ibrahim puts it: “When museums are talking about bringing in exhibitions, they say the two themes that always work are mummies and dinosaurs!”
And dinosaurs’ outsize appeal extends to television. In 1999, the BBC unleashed what it calls “one of [its] most beloved factual shows”, Walking with Dinosaurs.
Now, after a surprisingly long interlude, comes Walking with Dinosaurs: Legends Unearthed, a six-part continuation and a celebration of animals that were always much more than the sum of their movie counterparts.
For this is a series that isn’t afraid to show the cuddly side of the “terrible lizards” – even, perhaps, with a touch of unashamed anthropomorphism, giving the beasts’ names and imagined family lives.