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07th Nov 2016

Planet Earth 2’s baby iguana vs racer snakes scene stressed out an entire nation

The best chase scene since Bullitt

Simon Lloyd

Snakes are evil little legless bastards. Don’t be fooled by anyone who tries to tell you otherwise.

More evidence to support this came on Sunday evening, when Planet Earth II hit our screens.

The first episode of the new David Attenborough-narrated series focused on animal life on islands and, having already shown us a pygmy three-toed sloth swimming around the island of Escudo de Veraguas and a couple of Komodo dragons kicking the shit out of each other in Indonesia, the show took us to the island of Fernandina, which, contrary to popular belief, is actually one of the Galapagos Islands and nothing to do with the place they go on their dates on Take Me Out.

There, we are introduced to a marine iguana hatchling in its first seconds of life. Poking its head from the sand, Attenborough tells us that its first task in life is to make it across the beach to join the grown-up marine iguanas that are waiting by the water’s edge.

But there’s a problem. As it makes its way towards the water, the iguanalet (yes, we know that’s probably not the right word) is pursued by a racer snake. What follows is genuinely one of the most distressing things ever seen on Sunday night television.

Initially escaping, we then find out that it’s not just a matter of out-running *one* of the snakes for the seconds-old iguana. Oh no – there’s absolutely shitloads of the slithering little fuckers lying in wait to kill him.

Viewers were exhausted by it all. Genuinely one of the most incredible pieces of television ever.

https://twitter.com/420marmite/status/795363051570655232

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