Oh, to be a hungover twenty-something on a London Sunday morning.
A headache-curing stroll by the river turns into a migraine-inducing stumble down the Tottenham Court Road. A necessary Starbucks pit-stop turns into a wholly unnecessary McDonald’s lunchtime banquet. And a casual trip to The O2 turns into a two-and-a-half-hour long audio-visual extravaganza, featuring a sixty-piece orchestra and some of the finest natural cinematography ever committed to film.
Wait, what?
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Yes, dear reader – somehow, we’d ended up at The O2 to watch Planet Earth II – Live in Concert.
Now, we’re going to be totally honest here: we weren’t really sure what to expect. We thought – nay, we knew that we’d enjoy it. Truth be told, we thought we might even love it. But what we weren’t expecting was to come out of that cavernous ol’ arena having learned a thing or two.
‘But what on earth could an evening at The O2 teach anybody?!’, we hear you scream? Well, let us talk you through a few choice points:
That we’re absolute suckers for live orchestration.
Name us one thing it wouldn’t improve. And while you’re trying to do that, we’re going to tell you one thing that it definitely did improve: the visuals of Planet Earth II.
Frankly, the sight of some of Attenborough and co.’s finest work being beamed onto a screen that even Jeff Bezos might deem to be ‘a bit over-the-top’ isn’t something that we’re going to forget in a hurry. And we pray that we won’t, either – it was magnificent.
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That the Planet Earth II cinematography team deserve all the accolades they’ve accumulated (and then some).
Seriously? You guys strapped a camera to a lioness and then followed her around as she hunted? And you didn’t die? Kudos, friends.
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That it is entirely possible to become emotionally attached to a small iguana.
Don’t believe us? Watch this and dare to disagree.
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And that there’s no hangover cure quite like a big-screen, arena-sized natural sciences experience – with an actual orchestra.
It’s hard to believe that sitting in a twenty-thousand-capacity room for nigh-on three hours might function as anything other than a surefire hangover accelerator; but allow us to explain.
You see, dear reader, there’s just something about Planet Earth II – Live in Concert that soothed our wounded souls on that sombre Sunday evening. Maybe it was the sight of sixty world-class instrumentalists strutting, plucking, and striking their respective stuff on the stage in front of us. Maybe it was merely the fact that looking at gorgeous images of some of wildlife’s most fascinating creatures was distracting enough to make this humble writer forget that a mere four hours prior, they could’ve sworn that the cast of Stomp was staging a full (and enthusiastic) dress rehearsal within the confines of their frontal lobe.
Or maybe – just maybe – it was a top-tier arena show, put together by an ensemble of talented creatives and musical artists, and one that was guaranteed to impress even the most reluctant of parental chaperones, dragged-along toddlers, or pint-hardened journalists. (And maybe even teach them a thing or two along the way).
