On the trail of Tarka

REVIEWS:

Radio Times :

Radio Times Choice - Documentary

Anyone who read Tarka the Otter as a child and got drunk on Henry Williamson's prose will enjoy this lyrical film about otters in Devon. It is set on the same stretch of the River Torridge that Williamson made famous, and where film-maker Charlie Hamilton James (who also made the award winning My Halcyon River) finds a modern-day Tarka and friends. There can be few sights more likely to send tingles down the spine of a wildlife lover than a family of otters bobbing and weaving in the water, the cubs tussling with each other, then curling up to sleep in a hollow tree. It's magical stuff, and the portrait of passing seasons on a Devon river is enchanting in itself. The film reminds us that otters nearly became extinct in Britain in the 1970s, a fact that makes their frolicking here all the more fun to watch.

RT reviewer - David Butcher

Times Preview (Highlight) :

Eighty years after the publication of Henry Williamson’s novel Tarka the Otter, the film-maker Charlie Hamilton-James — a man of infinite patience — set out to film Tarka’s descendants in the rivers of North Devon. These sleek, slithery creatures are among the hardest animals in Britain to film, and this beautiful documentary is the result of months of perseverance in the bitter cold. He managed to film them gambolling in the water, feasting on salmon and eel and — most extraordinary of all — snuggling together as a family inside their dug-outs, or holts. The film shows how accurate Williamson’s novel was, with one significant difference. Eighty years ago, the otter’s main enemy was the hunter. Today, it is the car.

Times reviewer: David Chater

Telegraph Preview (Choice) :

Eighty years ago, Henry Williamson immortalised a short stretch of the River Torridge in Devon in his bestseller Tarka the Otter. Here, film-makers Charlie Hamilton-James and Philippa Forrester visit the area in search of the water creatures. After months of patient fieldwork, they manage to record intimate footage of wild otters. The resulting film is both a portrait of these shy creatures and a tribute to Williamson’s skills as a naturalist. CM