Archive Animal Welfare MacIntyre goes from loan sharks to Great Whites
| MacIntyre goes from loan sharks to Great Whites |
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AT the other end of a telephone line, with sirens wailing and the wind seemingly pounding the receiver, Britain's highest profile undercover reporter, Donal MacIntyre, is talking very fast. Perhaps it is because of his exuberance for his new show, Killer Shark Live, on Five from tomorrow. Or maybe he's simply just pushed for time as he momentarily ducks out of setting up an elaborate sting to catch yet another wrong-doer. "Not that many marine researchers have actually dealt specifically with the Great White, because it's kind of too sexy to study. It's too popular and predictable. "So it seems that in that predictability there's an information gap which we're going to go some way to filling." In the show, the 39-year-old is joined by science and natural history presenter Nick Baker to uncover the world of the ocean predator. Broadcast live over seven days, it combines observations and experiments, and comes direct from the Condor diving boat on Isla de Guadalupe, 160 miles off the coast of Baja, California, and from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego. "This is effectively a live natural history show, which is new territory for television. It's 'show me TV' rather than 'tell me'. We're down there under the water, doing experiments that haven't been done before. "We'll be undertaking autopsies, testing out various shark repellents, discovering if sharks really do mistake surfers for seals and we'll be doing all of this surrounded by the best experts in world. "We're really bringing home to the audience that classic Reithian concept of broadcasting, which is educating, informing and entertaining." Although he may be famed for his fearlessness, he is happy Nick Baker is the one getting wet. "I'll be on dry land," he says, "because there are two things I'm scared of, namely the dark and diving. "When I made the Wild Weather programme for the BBC, I nearly killed myself because I got lost underwater, untethered beneath an arctic ice cap and we were lucky to survive." Killer Shark Live, Five, tomorrow, 8pm MacIntyre's Toughest Towns, Five, Wednesday, 11.05pm
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