'Secret World of Sound' Movie Review: Unmissable docu-series on nature’s sounds

At the end of three episodes, I was certain my ears had gotten sharper. I was on edge, trying to listen to everything at once — our resident munia family going twit-twit, a truck backing up far away, the faint barks of a dog, and closer home, my daughter's restless knocking on her table as she attempted to study.

Such is the effect of the 'voice of nature', the inimitable David Attenborough, narrating about the noises and sounds around us in Netflix's fabulous documentary series, 'Secret World of Sound'.

Have you paused to listen to a bee? Have you ever wondered about the purrs, the roars, the buzzes, the clicks, and the tick-tocks of the beings around you? Attenborough invites you to do so in the gentlest and the most beguiling manner, and before you know it, you are staring (and hearing) keenly as seagulls do a passable tap dance to mirror the sound of rain pattering on grass and get unsuspecting worms out of their borrows, which they then gobble up in glee; a great grey owl in Manitoba in Canada swoops down in silent precision to clutch a vole from beneath half a metre of snow; a bee uses the very vibrations of its wings (which creates the buzz sound) to open a nightshade flower and gets sticky white pollen all over itself and battle-weary elephants 'hear' rain through their feet by 'listening' to the vibrations of an approaching storm through the ground...

Specialist cameras and microphones (sometimes as many as 60) allow the viewer to 'see' in the pitch-dark Arizona desert, get a peek inside the home of a tiny earthworm, and hear the dolphins whistling, among other fascinating forays. With its breathtaking visuals and superb production values, this immersive feature takes you on a journey of sound around the world. Turn up the volume, lean back, and don't miss this sonic spectacle.