BBC4 Tonight, Tuesday October 12th 9pm, (Pick of the day - Sunday times, Choice in most other Sundays)
A young British woman called Jane goes into the African jungle, meets loads of chimpanzees and gets really famous: now where have we heard that story before? The life of Jane Goodall, a secretary from Bournemouth who ventured into the Tanzanian jungle in 1960 to study chimpanzees feels like something out of a kids' book. Beauty And The Beasts is not the most elegantly put together documentary but it serves as a great introduction to Goodall's life and work, which forever changed the way we see primates. Guardian
Produced and directed by Jeremy Bristow, Film Editor Dilesh Korya.
Documentary which explores the untold story of how Britain 'went wild' in the 1960s. It shows how the British people fell in love with animals and how, by the end of the decade, wildlife protection had become an intrinsic part of our culture. Before that time people knew very little about endangered species or the natural world - the very word 'environment' was hardly recognised. But the 1960s saw a sea change.
The film discovers how early television wildlife programmes with David Attenborough, writers such as Gerald Durrell and Gavin Maxwell and pioneers of conservation such as Peter Scott contributed to that transformation.
This new BBC series follows a dramatic expedition searching for tigers hidden in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.With tigers heading for extinction, an international team of big cat experts and wildlife filmmakers are given unique access to the jungles and mountains of Bhutan for what could be the last chance to save this magnificent animal.
Explorer, Steve Backshall, is joined by sniffer dog, Bruiser; together they hunt for tigers through the dense forest undergrowth. High in the mountains, wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan drives himself to exhaustion tracking tigers that seem as elusive as the yeti. And in a jungle base camp, scientist George McGavin, organises a firefly disco whilst camerawoman, Justine Evans, is stuck at the top of a tree during a tropical lightning storm. For the final team member, big cat biologist Alan Rabinowitz, time to save the tiger is running out…he has incurable leukemia. Alan bugs the forest with remote cameras to capture whatever secretive creatures are lurking there, but ultimately he needs to find tigers if his ambitious plan to protect them across the Himalayas is to succeed.
We follow the expedition every emotional step of the way as they strive to find evidence that could help to bring wild tigers back from the brink of extinction and safeguard their future.
Read about the "lost" population of tigers that the BBC team discovered living high in the Bhutan Mountains. Earth News
Patrick Stewart narrates a three-part series on the world's last mountain gorillas.This edition follows the plight of some of the youngest and most vulnerable of the mountain gorilla population. Includes the two young orphans whose mothers were callously murdered in execution style killings, the young female battling with new emotions, and the new gorilla king struggling to keep hold of the group he fought so hard to win.
Discover how they cope in this exploration of what the future holds for the remaining last few hundred mountain gorillas. BBC
Can silverback Rano hold on to the group he fought so hard to win? This final programme looks to see what the future holds for the last remaining Mountain Gorillas.
Pierce through the darkness and encounter a hidden world previously unseen by human eyes in the premiere of Night of the Lion.
It is only once the sun has gone down beyond the horizon that the deadly lion truly comes to life, using scent and sound to stalk and kill its prey. But this night-time hunting routine has always been virtually impossible to capture on film - until now.
With the aid of new light-enhancing, heat-seeking technology, see how the starlight camera transforms pitch-black wilderness into an array of vibrant colours. Observe lions and their prey in crystal-clear detail as our team, at long last, gets the chance to properly study these untamed predators during their most active period. This film demonstrates not only how groundbreaking equipment can revolutionise wildlife programme making, but also the terrifying precision of the hunting lion after dark.
8 pm, BBC 2, 19th August 2010 &;
7:30 pm, BBC HD, 20th August 2010
(photo copyright BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tj7j)
The wildlife of the most stunning mountain range in the world, home to Snow leopards, Himalayan wolves and Tibetan bears. Snow leopards stalk their prey among the highest peaks. Concealed by snowfall, the chase is watched by Golden Eagles circling above. On the harsh plains of the Tibetan plateau live extraordinary bears and square-faced foxes hunting small rodents to survive. In this world of extremes, the Himalayas reveal not only snow-capped mountains and fascinating animals but also a vital lifeline for humanity.
Producer: Mark Fletcher
Series Producer: Steve Greenwood
Series Editor: Tim Martin
www.bbc.co.uk/naturalworld
The trials and tribulations of a sea otter pup growing up on the coast of California.
The Californian sea otter is one of the rarest, and possibly cutest animals in the world. So when a sea otter mum decides to have her pup amongst the yachts of a millionaires' marina, it is a unique event. The mum must teach her baby how to dodge the boats and find the food in this busy harbour. However, the arrival of a tough male sea otter signals disaster for the family. When mum is attacked, the poor pup is left on her own and must fight for survival.
Sea Otter mothers are very protective of their pups and rarely let them out of their sight. Here the mother enjoys a rare peaceful moment when the pup falls asleep on her belly (Copyright: BBC).
A celebration of the life and legacy of Echo, the world's most famous elephant, who was born in 1945 and died in 2009, and who Natural World followed for the last 20 years of her life.
The timing of Echo's death could not be worse. The wise old matriarch had guided her family for half a century but the cruellest drought in living memory devastated her home under the shadow of Kilimanjaro. Will her 38-strong band of relatives and descendants overcome the loss of their leader, hunger and poachers to survive?
Presented by David Attenborough, editor Matt Meech, director Mike Birkhead and filmed by Martyn Colbeck. I wrote the music and Kate Gould is the solo cellist. Part of the BBC Natural World strand, series editor Tim Martin.
Echo on Wildlife Finder
Following on from the 4 stunning Natural Worlds filmed over the years of Echo's life - Wildlife Finder have launched a whole new section. They've collated clips from all the programmes so you can now watch the best bits of Echo's personal story http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/characters/37
The Harpy Eagle is the most powerful bird of prey in the world, plucking monkeys from the branches of the jungle canopy. Rare and elusive they are seldom seen but with the discovery of a Harpy nest in the remote Orinoco rainforest of Venezuela , wildlife film-maker Fergus Beeley has a unique opportunity to follow the life of a chick from birth to adulthood . Fergus ascends high into the canopy revealing a stunning world of colour and sound, and follows the trials of the harpy eagle's newly hatched chick as it grows up. Fergus becomes just another member of the dazzling community of birds and animals surrounding the harpy nest and develops an unexpectedly close bond with the harpy chick.
Don't miss this new series of Deadly 60. Bicep throbbing Steve Backshall kicks of series 2 by taking to the water in Mexico in search of a deep-sea creature, before embarking on a quest to find the biggest wasp in the world.
This week, Professor Brian Cox descends to the bottom of the Pacific in a submarine to witness the extraordinary life forms that survive in the cold, black waters. All life on Earth needs water so the search for aliens in the Solar System has followed the search for water.
Soaring above the dramatic Scablands of the United States, Brian discovers how the same landscape has been found on Mars. And it was all carved out in a geological heart-beat by a monumental flood.
Armed with a gas mask, Brian enters a cave in Mexico where bacteria breath toxic gas and leak concentrated acid. Yet relatives of these creatures could be surviving in newly-discovered caves on Mars.
But Brian’s 6th Wonder isn’t a planet at all. Jupiter’s moon Europa is a dazzling ball of ice etched with strange cracks. The patterns in the ice reveal that, far below, there is an ocean with more potentially life-giving water than all the oceans on Earth.
Of all the Wonders of the Solar System forged by the laws of nature, there is one that stands out. In the final episode of this series, Brian reveals the greatest Wonder of them all.
Written & Produced by Michael Lachmann
Assistant Producer: Laura Mulholland
Series Producer: Danielle Peck
Exec Producer: Andrew Cohen
In the penultimate programme in this spell-binding series, Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most dramatic locations on Earth to explain how the laws of nature create astonishing natural wonders across the Solar System.
The worlds that surround our planet are all made of rock, but there the similarity ends. Some have a beating geological heart, others are frozen in time. In this episode Brian travels to the tallest mountain on Earth, the volcano Mauna Kea on Hawaii, to show how something as basic as a planet’s size can make the difference between life and death. Even on the summit of this volcano, Brian would stand in the shade of the tallest mountain in the Solar System, an extinct volcano on Mars called Olympus Mons, which rises up 27kms.
Yet the fifth Wonder in the series isn’t on a planet at all. It’s on a tiny moon of Jupiter. The discoveries made on Io have been astonishing. This fragment of rock should be cold and dead, yet, with the volcanic landscape of Eastern Ethiopia as a backdrop, Brian reveals why Io is home to extraodinary lakes of lava and giant volcanic plumes that erupt 500kms into the sky.
Written & Directed by Paul Olding
Assistant Producer: Ben Finney
Series Producer: Danielle Peck
Exec Producer: Andrew Cohen
The Human Planet team (from the BBC Natural History Unit) have just launched their programme website - www.bbc.co.uk/humanplanet
Each month they will be uploading new content and launching one of the eight episodes - they've started with Arctic, including two great videos about Greenland dogs and camping on the ice, plus Norwegian yoiks (have to be heard to be believed). There are also interviews with award winning musician Nitin Sawhney who's composing the music for the series and photographer Tim Allen.
This week Professor Brian Cox reveals how something as flimsy as an envelope of gas - an atmosphere - can create some of the most wondrous sights in the Solar System.
Brian takes a ride in a English Electric Lightning and flies 18kms up to the top of Earth’s atmosphere, where he sees the darkness of space above and the thin blue line of our atmosphere below. In the Namib desert in south-west Africa, he tells the story of Mercury. This tiny planet was stripped naked of its early atmosphere and is fully exposed to the ferocity of space.
But it’s against the stunning backdrop of the glaciers of Alaska, that Brian reveals his fourth Wonder. Saturn’s moon Titan is shrouded by a murky, thick atmosphere. In this episode Brian reveals that below the clouds lies a magical world. Titan is the only place beyond Earth where we’ve found liquid pooling on the surface in vast lakes, as big as the Caspian Sea. But the lakes of Titan are filled with a mysterious liquid, and are quite unlike anything on Earth.
Written & Directed by Chris Holt
Assistant Producer Tom Ranson
Series Producer Danielle Peck
Exec Producer: Andrew Cohen
Since my time researching at the Natural History Museum in London I have had a passion for this unique and esteemed institution that resides in one of our greatest and well known buildings (Nov 2009). I was especially excited to hear that the BBC were producing a series looking behind the scenes and I sit here anxiously awaiting its broadcast. 'Museum of Life' starts tonight at 8pm on BBC2. Peculiarly it's presented by Jimmy Doherty but I'm not going to let that put me off!
While I'm pushing this promising new series I want to also tell you about a discovery that I made in the BBC archives. In 1970 the BBC produced an episode of Horizon called 'Noah's Ark in Kensington' - you could say that it's a version of tonight's programme from an age gone by. A charming film with a faded sepia look that gives it an air of being produced in World War II. The people who feature in it are lovable parodies of the eccentric British upper-class scientist.
Here's a few screenshots I need to dash as 'Museum of Life' is just starting....
The 1970s Natural History Museum security lining up for inspection by the 'Major' in the morning. http://twitpic.com/18zh3e
Where's the Diplodocus? According to Richard Fortey it was moved from the reptile gallery, now the Dinosaur Hall, to be the centrepiece of the main hall in 1979. http://twitpic.com/18ziov
'Museum of Life' starts 18th March 8pm on BBC2.
Jimmy Doherty goes behind the scenes at the Natural History Museum to join the people who are uncovering secrets, solving mysteries and making discoveries among the historic collections Visit the official BBC website.
While I'm pushing this promising new series I want to also tell you about a discovery that I made in the BBC archives. In 1970 the BBC produced an episode of Horizon called 'Noah's Ark in Kensington' - you could say that it's a version of tonight's programme from an age gone by. A charming film with a faded sepia look that gives it an air of being produced in World War II. The people who feature in it are lovable parodies of the eccentric British upper-class scientist. Here's a few screenshots...
The 1970s Natural History Museum security lining up for inspection by the 'Major' in the morning. http://twitpic.com/18zh3e
Where's the Diplodocus? According to Richard Fortey it was moved from the reptile gallery, now the Dinosaur Hall, to be the centrepiece of the main hall in 1979. http://twitpic.com/18ziov
What they've been saying about last week's episode:
"utterly compelling...spectacularly good - Auntie at her best" Daily Mail
"literally the best hour of TV I have ever seen" Chris Evans, R2 Breakfast Show
"The sort of television that captivates hungry young minds, the sort that’s recalled as inspirational for years to come." Daily Telegraph
In the second episode of his stunning exploration of the Solar System, Professor Brian Cox reveals how all the beauty and order we see in our cosmic backyard was carved out of nothing more than a chaotic cloud of gas.
Chasing tornados in Oklahoma, Brian explains how the same physics that creates these spinning storms shaped the young Solar System. And out of this celestial maelstrom emerged the jewel in the crown, Brian’s second Wonder - the magnificent rings of Saturn. Brian travels to an ice-choked lagoon in Iceland to see the nearest thing to Saturn’s rings we have here on Earth. Using the latest scientific imagery and breath-taking graphics, he explains how the intricate patterns are shaped by the cluster of more than 60 moons surrounding Saturn. One of those moons makes a spectacular contribution to Saturn’s rings, and is his third Wonder of the Solar System. Brian describes the astonishing discovery of giant fountains of ice erupting from the surface of Enceladus, which soar thousands of kilometres into space.
Series Producer: Danielle Peck
Written & Directed by Michael Lachmann
Assistant Producer: Diana Ellis-Hill
Exec Producer: Andrew Cohen
for further details about this series, the BBC's new Solar System website and CBBC's spin-off series, Space Hoppers go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/
The woman who 'speaks elephant'. Deep in the rainforest of Central Africa lies an elephant oasis - a remarkable place that holds the key to the future for Forest Elephants. Over the last 20 years, Andrea Turkalo has been studying these enigmatic giants, getting to know over 4,000 intimately. She has begun to unravel the secrets of their complex social lives and the meanings of their unique vocalisations. Today, new acoustic research is shedding light on the many mysteries that still surround forest elephant society. Will these endangered elephants finally speak out and tell Andrea what it is they need to survive?
