Walking with Cavemen

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Walking with Cavemen is a four-part television documentary series about human evolution produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom. It was originally released in April 2003. It was subsequently presented in the United States as a two-part series by the Discovery Channel and its affiliates.

The documentary was produced largely by the same team who produced the award-winning documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs and Walking with Beasts, though the original series' director, Tim Haines was not involved. In the previous documentaries, extinct animals were recreated with CGI and animatronics. For Walking with Cavemen, a slightly different approach was taken. While most of the animals depicted were still computer generated or animatronic, the human ancestors were portrayed by actors wearing makeup and prosthetics, giving them a more realistic look and permitting the actors to give the creatures a human quality.

Like its predecessors, Walking with Cavemen is made in the style of a wildlife documentary, featuring a voice-over narrator (Robert Winston in the British release, Alec Baldwin in the North American release) who describes the recreations of the prehistoric past as if they are real. As with the predecessors, this approach necessitated the presentation of speculation as if it is fact, and some of the statements made about the behaviour of the creatures are more open to question than the documentary may indicate.

In the first episode, we see Australopithecus afarensis, specifically Lucy and her relatives. The show follows the tribe of apemen as the have internal conflicts following the death of the alpha male, and eventually an attack by a rival troupe.

The second episode then leaps forward to a time when Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis co-exist. Homo habilis is depicted as an intelligent omnivore that is more adaptable than its herbivorous neighbours, being able to eat tall grasses in difficult times.

In the third episode, Homo ergaster is depicted as the first creature to master the art of tracking, and Homo erectus is shown spreading into Asia and encountering the enormous Gigantopithecus.

In the fourth episode we leap forward to a time when Homo heidelbergensis is living in Britain. Heidelbergensis is depicted as intelligent and sensitive but lacking in the ability to comprehend an afterlife. Next, we see Homo neanderthalensis hunting mammoth during the Ice Age, and learn that they are intelligent but lack the imagination of modern humans. Finally, we see modern Homo sapiens (represented by Bushmen) in Africa, and glimpse the cave painters of Europe.

Each species segment takes the form of a short drama featuring a group of the particular hominid in question going about their daily lives (the search for food, protecting territory, and caring for the sick and injured). The intent is to get the human viewer to feel for the creatures being examined, almost to imagine being one of them (a trait that the documentary links to the modern human brain).