Documentary films used to be seen as stuffy and rather high brow but they have evolved in the last few years to become a valuable form of relaxation and entertainment. Documentaries can take several forms such as nature, political and even food related and many are now leaning towards the reality TV genre.
Nature documentaries have come on a long way over the last decade and the images we can now enjoy in a nature programme are miracles of technology which enable us to see animals and habitats that we could never have dreamt of. The patience of the film makers means that we can share intimate and rare parts of the animal life cycle and many people never fail to be amazed by the latest programmes.
A new and increasingly popular type of documentary are those connected with food and there have been many in recent years which involved a top TV chef of household name campaigning to improve eating habits or dissecting the quality of the food that we actually eat.
While these can be educational they seem to be more focused on the personality themselves rather than the theme.
Then there are the documentaries which come close to reality TV and which seem to be pure light entertainment rather than educational. They can be a great way to spend half an hour but cannot claim to enrich our lives and are soon forgotten.