Switzerland

I don’t know, but I usually found these Disney “People and Places” documentaries a little too much on the condescending side. Whilst this one doesn’t quite immerse us in Toblerone or cuckoo clocks, it also doesn’t make any effort to show us the industrial, banking and scientific Switzerland that existed in the midst of the twentieth century. Instead it focuses on the more rural activities of a village of one hundred-odd people who still herd goats, hand-make cheese and thresh their crops without the aid of any technology whatsoever. Of course the population are all in traditional dress, and most of the emphasis throughout presents us with a nation of cheery and creative people straight out of a Johanna Spyri novel, who happen to be pretty adept on skis. Might it even be the legendary “Kloppmann” choir providing much of the ambient soundtrack? Thanks to a partnership with Swissair, there is plenty of aerial photography of the Alps, the lakes and the country is certainly portrayed as beautiful, but sadly quaint is really the only order of the day for Winston Hibler et al here.