Congo (BBC TV series)
| Congo | |
|---|---|
Series title card from UK broadcast
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| Genre | Nature documentary |
| Written by | Brian Leith |
| Directed by | Brian Leith |
| Narrated by | John Lynch |
| Composer(s) | Ben Salisbury |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Neil Nightingale |
| Producer(s) | Brian Leith |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Scorer Associates BBC Natural History Unit Discovery Channel |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Picture format | SD: 576i (16:9) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 30 January – 13 February 2001 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Andes to Amazon |
| Followed by | Wild Africa |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Congo is a 2001 BBC nature documentary series for television on the natural history of the Congo River of Central Africa. In three episodes, the series explores the variety of animals and habitats that are to be found along the river’s 4,700 km (2,922 mi) reach.
Congo was produced for the BBC Natural History Unit and the Discovery Channel by Scorer Associates. The series writer/producer was Brian Leith and the executive producer was Neil Nightingale. Series consultants were Michael Fay, Kate Abernethy, Jonathan Kingdon and Lee White.
Little filming was possible in the Democratic Republic of the Congo which encompasses the vast majority of the river's watershed. (The one exception to this is the brief sequence of Livingstone Falls.) The reason for this is that the Second Congo War (1998–2003) was underway during filming (1999–2000).
The series forms part of the Natural History Unit's Continents strand and was preceded by Andes to Amazon in 2000 and succeeded by Wild Africa later that year in 2001.
Formerly called the “Zaire” (Kongo nzere, "the river that swallows all rivers"), the Congo's origin is traced to the Chambeshi (discovered by Livingstone) in Zambia. The Kalambo River has one of Africa’s highest waterfalls (250 meters) at the Zambia/Tanzania border. The Chambeshi contributes to the Bangweulu Swamp, home to both the black lechwe and the Bemba people. (Livingstone died there searching for the Nile source.) Other denizens include the oribi, tsessebe (relative of the gnu), African lungfish and the stork-like shoebill. The Luapula and Lualaba Rivers are followed, as is the Lake Tanganyika effluent river, the Lukuga. Tanganyika provides habitat for Limnocnida (freshwater jellyfish), the Bichir (a primitive fish), water cobra, the spotted-necked otter and diverse populations of cichlids. The abandoned “country estate” of Col. Stewart Gore-Browne (incorrectly called “Henry” in the series) — known as Shiwa Ngandu — is visited. It is in northern Zambia. The Congo’s course is picked up again far downstream where it forms a part of the border between Republic of Congo and Democratic Republic of Congo. The wider river here hosts elephant-snout fish, north African catfish, and the water chevrotain. “Bais” (Biaka, “glades”) provide habitat for elephant, hippo and the western lowland gorilla, which numbers as many as 50,000 within the Odzala National Park. River martins swarm massively. The Congo is so wide here that it forms an effective barrier between two related species of ape: the common chimp on the north bank and the bonobo (pygmy chimp) on the south. The sequence makes another huge jump here, to the Livingstone Falls just below Kinshasa. Finally, Gabon's Loango National Park is visited — the last place where large African animals may still be seen wild on a seashore.
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