Dynasties, episode 3, review: The lion's plight is harrowing to watch

On last week’s episode of Dynasties – David Attenborough’s new BBC1 series, which follows five of the world’s most celebrated but endangered animals – the film crew broke the 92-year-old broadcaster’s cardinal rule: never interfere with nature. When a group of emperor penguins became trapped in an icy ravine, the team dug a ramp in the ice, allowing the penguins to free themselves.

It was an unprecedented decision, but one even Attenborough himself (according to executive producer Mike Gunton) would have made. The trouble is, it just makes it all the more galling that in tonight’s episode, which follows a pride of lions in Kenya’s Masai Mara, nature is allowed to take its course – no matter how cruel.

And, as is typical of Attenborough’s documentaries, there are about a thousand cruel moments. The Marsh Pride (which is, says Attenborough in his frail, avuncular tone, “perhaps the most famous lion family of all”) has been abandoned by every single one of its adult males, its survival now resting solely on the shoulders of a lioness called Charm, and her cousin Sienna.

Forced to hunt around the clock while her three-year-old son blunders around trying to bring down a two-ton hippo, and his young cousin Red ambles straight into the middle of a 20-strong hyena clan (the scene is, shot for shot, straight out of The Lion King), Charm must get down to the serious business of finding enough food for all ten of her dependents.

So high are the standards set by Attenborough’s myriad previous shows that it’s easy to take for granted the breathtaking cinematography. But tonight’s aerial shots of wildebeest swarming like ants away from the Masai Mara, infra-red footage of night hunts, and sunset-tinged close-ups of Charm, staring heroically into the middle distance, are so arresting that they surpass even the dizzying benchmark of the show’s predecessors.

Thank goodness it’s so beautiful, because in every other way, this is pretty harrowing to watch. At one point, Sienna is attacked and badly injured, returning to the pride after several days with a chunk missing from her side. Just as she recovers, the pride is poisoned by villagers attempting to protect their livestock.

Sienna goes missing, and Charm is forced to leave her ailing young cub for dead, in order to remain with the rest of her pride. “She’ll never see her son, or Sienna, alive again,” Attenborough sombrely informs us. Hakuna Matata.

There are moments of respite – Charm’s bond with her daughter, Yaya, is a sight to behold – but they don’t last long. A pair of male lions arrive to stake a claim in Charm’s hard-earned pride, and chase out every young cub, Yaya included.

By the end, though she has two new cubs, Attenborough’s claims that “this extraordinary lioness has succeeded” are somewhat debatable. But watching her resilience – “She’s the matriarch, she’s the... dame,” says one of the crew in the behind-the-scenes segment at the end – is inspiring. There are fewer than 2,000 lions left in Kenya. Shows like this remind us what a travesty that is.

Dynasties airs on Sundays on BBC1 at 8pm