Dineen described the series as "about a British institution undergoing radical change" and critics drew parallels between the power struggles at London Zoo and those within the Labour Party, the Church of England and, notably, the BBC at the time. If The Ark is about animals, it is those of Animal Farm, a point underlined when a giant panda with box-office appeal arrives to star treatment and Dineen's narration quotes Orwell's famous satire: "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."