Prehistoric Park with Nigel Marven is a DVD that combines everything - science, education, time travel and fantasy. Nigel Marven is a well-known nature and wildlife expert, who has presented several shows for both children and adults - you could say he is like a British Steve Irwin! Watching this DVD, his enthusiasm for his work is evident all the time, and can be quite infectious.

The tagline for Prehistoric Park is " Extinction doesn't have to be forever..." and this is the basic idea for the show: Using computer generated imagery combined with drama (and a bit of comedy!) Nigel Marven plays a "park-keeper" with a difference - he travels back in time to collect dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, and brings them back to live in his wildlife park in the present day.

Suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the show, as along the way he also manages to educate you all about these creatures from another time, with the help of his supporting cast - Suzanne McNab, Rod Arthur, and the narrator David Jason.

Anyone who enjoyed the BBC show 'Walking with Dinosaurs' will also enjoy this, as it's a similar looking show. The technical expertise is great and the quality of the CGI is very high in my opinion - all the creatures are very realistic and convincing. The acting is perhaps slightly wooden from the humans, but that is forgiveable because it's all part of the fun and the humans are not the stars here anyway!

This DVD has a PG certificate which I think is about right: Some children that are younger or more sensitive might find some of the creatures a bit frightening, and there are a couple of scenes where the dinosaurs are fighting and blood is drawn, for example. Another example is, in one episode, it's all about prehistoric bugs, and there are some pretty horrible giant insects there that appear to try to 'attack' Nigel. Other than this, older children and adults, especially those already interested in dinosaurs, should have no problem though.

Prehistoric Park was shown on terrestrial television around 3 or 4 years ago now, as a six part series. The entire series was then released on DVD in 2006.

We paid around £15.00 for our copy when it was first released, however a quick search shows that it is currently available from a bargain £4.98 on Amazon.

There are 2 discs in one single box, and the total running time is 288 minutes - quite long , but each of the six episodes can be watched seperately of course, plus there is another half an hour of extras and special features, which are as follows:

Interactive animal stats and facts ~ 'Building the Impossible' -- the making of Prehistoric Park ~ Storyboards and Picture Gallery.

Overall I would say this is a great DVD set for all ages, and highly recommend it - especially for dinosaur lovers!