Review of Survival

Survival (1961– )
9/10
Wild at heart
1 April 2007
The creator, architect, inspiration and editor of the Anglia 'Survival' TV series which was screened on ITV during the sixties and seventies was Colin Willock.

Colin started his career in Fleet Street as a journalist and editor, but during the fifties migrated to where the 'action' was - television.

With all the endearing bravado of chef and restaurateur, Rick Stein, searching for 'Food Heroes', Colin made his first tentative programme for Anglia at a maggot farm near Yiewsley.

Not quite so appetising as some of Rick Stein's discoveries, but a foretaste of things to come.

The 'Survival' series, promoted and facilitated by Aubrey Buxton - then Managing Director of Anglia TV, based in Norwich - ran and re-ran for many years.

This series of wildlife programmes blossomed and, like David Attenborough, went further and further afield giving opportunities for wildlife cinematographers from a range of countries and disciplines.

Luckily, in old age, Colin Willock recorded his recollections of a lifetime in a 'countryside' that ranged from the ploughed fields and hedgerows of Norfolk to the proverbial 'plains of the Serengeti'.

This book published in 2001 by The World Pheasant Association - shortly before his death - is called 'A Life on the Wild Side'.

It's a great tribute to a man who spent almost all of his time behind the camera, so that we could enjoy what was going on in front of it.
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