viewers furiously switched off within minutes of a new nature documentary starting as they fumed over legend narration.
Hanks replaced the veteran presenter for the series, which is produced by the same bosses who worked on Blue Planet and Planet Earth. Speaking of signing up, Tom said: “When the opportunity arose to be the voice of The Americas, I said: ‘I think I’ve lived for that opportunity.’ I knew that I would be learning an awful lot.
“I wanted to be on the front line. I feel lucky to be a part of this extraordinary project – of capturing something that is so real that is it’s irrefutable to anybody who watches it. And it’s just glorious to be a part of that.”
But unimpressed viewers turned off after just 10 minutes, with one tweeting: “#TheAmericas Watched 10 minutes, can’t stand Tom Hanks commentary. Makes you realise how good David Attenborough is.” Another agreed: “I’ve just posted more or less the same thing. I didn’t even realise it was Tom Hanks. Just knew it wasn’t David Attenborough! I’ve turned off as well.”
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David Attenborough was replaced by Tom Hanks in the new documentary (Image: Getty)
Somebody else said: “Casting Tom Hanks as the narrator for #TheAmericas instead of David Attenborough is like making a PM, when you’ve once had a true Brit in Sir Winston Churchill.” And another posted: “Started to watch it as thought it might be good and future episodes. No, narrating dull and boring. Sir David Attenborough is the only one for nature programmes.”
Others argued in favour of the Band of Brothers legend, writing: “First episode was stunning, great narration by Tom Hanks. Beautiful work!” And another echoed: “Perfectly fine sound on my TV. I thought #TheAmericas was really good, something a little different to normal wildlife programming. The trash pandas were so cute.”
Tom Hanks stepped up in Attenborough’s place (Image: Getty)
Another echoed: “#TheAmericas is trending because Tom Hanks isn’t Sir David Attenborough. I s**t you not. I rather like both these chaps; they seem good people. If they get your interested in the natural world, they did their job. Not many realise that Attenborough is Open University/.”