Let’s not beat about the Caledonian bush. The BBC really ought to get on and put that “sixth” Wild Isles documentary on their live schedules, whether or not it was ever considered for a slot.

You will, I‘m sure, if you’ve been anywhere near the media, have read the story of how the Guardian ran a piece which said that the BBC had relegated said film to iPlayer “because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press”.

Swiftly following that, after some public fuss – enhanced by the outrage over Gary Lineker being taken off the air for his tweet about immigrant policy – this was later dismissed by the broadcaster as “totally inaccurate”, and described by some as fake news.

“There is no ‘sixth episode’,” said the BBC. “Wild Isles is – and always was – a five part series and does not shy away from environmental content. We have acquired a separate film for iPlayer from the RSPB and WWF and Silverback Films about people working to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the British Isles.”

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There are, however, truths lurking beneath the surface here. There’s no doubting that any documentary that really tells it how it is in terms of Britain’s nature would ruffle the Tory right, and indeed represent an irritant to almost any government that might be in power. After all, what needs to be done to turn around our loss of biodiversity involves rethinking everything from agriculture to industry, as well as what we as individuals consume.

Monday night’s first episode of the new Attenborough series, was, as ever, dazzlingly operatic. But watching it made me aware of how much we are going to need this other film, titled Saving Our Wild Isles. For, as hard as David Attenborough might be trying now, there is something in the expected form and narrative of these shows that prevents the telling of the full story.

What I took away from the first episode was what we were not seeing. Partly the issue is that Wild Isles was saddled with a narrative challenge – in the same way as the Green Planet was. What tales do you tell, when there are so very few apex predators, o the sort that have long been the lifeblood of Attenborough documentaries? It says a great deal that the Wild Isles started at the very outer-limits of the UK with these orcas. Long gone are the wolves, the lynx, the bear – the ocean is the chief place we can find such grand beasts.

Attenborough delivers us the bad news softly, but with gravity – like an alarm sounding in another room. “The Caledonian Forest is the only native coniferous woodland left in Britain – and is less than one percent of its original extent. Only 13 percent of Britain as a whole is covered by trees – that's one of the lowest proportions in the whole of Europe.”

Then we are caught up in another drama again, following a dormouse in an oak woodland, till again the alarm gently sounds. The loudest ring comes towards the end of the show after a sequence in which charismatic puffins fight off black-headed gulls who want to poach the sand eels literally from their mouths.

“Most of our puffin colonies are in decline,” the veteran presenter says. “Overfishing and climate change mean that the sand eels they depend on are increasingly hard to find. It's a clear example of just how fragile and fragmented our nature is.

Though rich in places, Britain as a whole is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. Never has there been a more important time to invest in our own wildlife, to try and set an example for the rest of the world and restore our once wild isles for future generations.”

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This is a forceful message. But it still feels we need more. We need someone, for instance, telling us that the industrial sand eel fishery in our waters is being fished by the Danish and that there is now a consultation on its management - please sign the petition.

Of course that's not what an Attenborough film does. It is about making us thrill and care. It's about emotion, rather than information, and it delivers a full blow of horror in a sequence of footage of a male orca, found dead, drowned after getting caught up in fishing gear.

But ultimately too much of our human impact still remains missing from the shows. There is too little direct finger pointing. That's why I’m pleased to hear that there is to be this other film, and that Saving Our Wild Isles will be looking at the causes of nature depletion, including farming practices. Research has shown that the biggest driver of biodiversity loss globally, is land use change – and chiefly that revolves around food production, and what we put on our plates.

So, yes, BBC get it on your schedules. Though, of course, now the good news is that it will likely find a big audience on iPlayer, from those keen to catch a glimpse of the film that might yet still cause a backlash from the Tory right. I very much hope this "sixth episode" does not disappoint.