The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species is a British nature documentary series written and presented by English zoologist Desmond Morris, first transmitted on BBC One in the United Kingdom from 27 July to 31 August 1994. It was co-produced in association with Discovery Communications (later Warner Bros. Discovery) in the United States, as well as several public broadcasters include: ORF in Austria, various ARD networks (MDR, SFB and WDR) in Germany, and Teleac in the Netherlands.
The series was later repeated on BBC Knowledge between 29 November 2000 and 31 January 2002 â with the exception of its controversial fourth episode due to various erotic scenes with sexually explicit material.
The programme has been written to accompany its six-part television series made by the BBC's Natural History Unit in Bristol, owing a debt of gratitude to all members of the large team that made their enthusiasm for this project unflagging within the immense care and effort they took to recording various patterns of human behaviour all over the globe was ultimately inspiring.
It described as "a study of human behaviour from a zoological perspective", he travels the world to filming the diverse customs and habits of various regions while suggesting common roots. The series which took two years (between 1992 and 1993) to make, this time will be a fascinating controversial moment especially the filming of orgasm shots from inside a woman's body, standing upright on our human sexuality and the simple anatomical fact as Morris commented:
More than the mere fascination of finding out particularly in a cultural moment, making it easier to see those of other cultures, faiths, political beliefs or sexual orientation as so distinctly from us that we shared humanity, examining a different biological component of our behaviours and ways of being â a timeless reminder that shared far more than we think.
At the close of its first episode, Morris described through as it follows:
Morris studies the natural habitat within its most interesting and odd species of all â humans, as we have evolved from our ancestors, instincts and behaviour are still rooted in our animal past. By denying this inheritance we are in danger of destroying everything we have strived so hard to create, as well as the different skin colours, beliefs and rituals to be found in the 5,000 million human beings alive today, we actually all share an almost identical genetic heritage.
In this portrait of the human species, Morris takes us right to the centre of existence exploring all aspects between life and behaviour from the way we our young to the common use of certain facial gestures, and covers a fascinating variety of subjects â our hunting instincts have been channelled into an extraordinary range of sporting activities; how the modern art world can trace its roots back to an early primate picking up a stone that resembles a face; how different courtship rituals across the world reflect the universal emotion of love. Morris also looks at some of the damaging consequences that can be seen when we try to deny our animal heritage â how territorial fights erupt when the tribal systems within our overcrowded cities break down, and how human relationships disintegrate when natural social or sexual patterns may change.
In this final episode, the last remaining lines which focused about dealing with various aspects of human behaviour when Morris said:
The most controversial moment in the series takes place in the fourth episode, which was originally transmitted on 17 August 1994. It includes sexually explicit scenes of a couple making love by using tiny endoscopic cameras placed inside to show intimate orifices located over the naked body, as well as several shots of full-frontal nudity by using thermal imagery to stimulate their sexual positions. The programme also depicts the insertion of a man's erect penis into a woman's vagina culminating in an orgasm and the ejaculation of semen. The depiction is followed by a microscopic view of human fertilization, helping to explain the defensive behaviours of the ovum to prevent multiple sperm cells from fertilizing it. For the first time, the programme actually showed artificial insemination, highlighting how these mechanisms work in a controlled environment.
The naked actors and married couple became famously known for their appearances in the 1991 sexually explicit educational video The Lovers' Guide. 31-year-old Wendy Duffield from London compounded the controversy further when she told a newspaper said "the only thing that wasn't faked was the orgasm". She made love with her husband, 38-year-old Tony, taking three times a day that required 63 sessions of strenuous effort by the couple over a period of three consecutive weeks in front of a film crew in order to show the physiological processes at work in sexual intercourse. Many scenes were also added later by using "tricks" to fool the viewers. Despite sufficient warnings being also given to the public, many complaints arose about this episode which was watched by an audience of more than 12 million viewers during the post-watershed slot; the BBC eventually described the production as a normal standard practice in documentary film-making.
The controversial fourth episode was initially shown on several television networks in different countries, including ABC National TV in Australia on 29 September 1994 and The Learning Channel in the United States on 22 January 1995. It was not previously broadcast on the digital educational channel BBC Knowledge (between December 2000 and January 2002) due to various scenes of sexually explicit material containing intimate moments of a couple during orgasm were too offensive for many viewers.
The programme's title music were composed by Howard Blake and Guy Michelmore, which includes the opening rendition of Franz Schubert's "String Quintet in C major, D. 956" (from the turbulent section of Adagio used as the sublime second movement) was one of its haunting orchestral themes ever written also arranged by Irish classical music group The Vanbrugh Quartet with English cellist Louise Hopkins.
The accompanying 244-page book of the television series published by BBC Books on 21 July 1994, and also a large-print version of the book (with 256 pages) was published by ISIS in January 1995. The book is also available in several different countries include: Australia, Finland, Italy, United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Israel, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, China and Spain.
It was also available as a VHS format of the programme released by BBC Video on 3 April 1995, containing six episodes in a dual cassette edition with the running time of 293 minutes.