In the midst of the exciting flurry of news articles about a number of upcoming natural history series, The BBC have decided to create their own waves by dropping a ‘BBC Planet’ trailer, calling attention to their upcoming projects and commissions. One of those projects is Perfect Planet, a Silverback Films production that I have been involved in for the past three years, and one that will be broadcast next year.
Lazily copied and pasted from the BBC press release…
Planet Earth is perfect. It orbits at the perfect distance from the sun; it tilts at just the right angle and has a decent sized moon to hold it in place. On top of that, the day-to-day workings of the planet naturally serve to nurture animals and plants. For instance, a global weather system circulates and distributes fresh water to all corners, and a cycle of marine currents delivers nutrients to even the deepest reaches of the ocean. As a result, there is literally no corner of our planet where life can’t be found.
Perfect Planet – in a unique fusion of blue chip natural history and earth sciences – explains how the living planet operates. This five part series will show how the forces of nature – weather, ocean currents, solar energy and volcanoes – drive, shape and support Earth’s great diversity of life. In doing so, it will reveal how animals are perfectly adapted to whatever the environment throws at them.
From the white wolves of Ellesemere Island to bears in Kamchatka; vampire finches of the Galapagos to golden snub-nosed monkeys of China, the series will combine a global view of the planet from space with intimate animal stories from the most spectacular habitats. From the Indian Monsoon to Hawaiian volcanoes; tidal islands of the Bahamas to the extremes of the Arctic winter, Perfect Planet will take the audience on a stunning visual journey that will change the way we see our home.
The final episode in the series looks at the dramatic impact of the world’s newest global force of nature – humans – and reveals what we need to do to in order to halt the dramatic loss of biodiversity
BBC Media Centre – 8th February 2019
Perfect Planet, a 5×60’ for BBC One, is made by Silverback Films, co-produced by Tencent Penguin Pictures, France Télévisions and The Open University. The Executive Producer is Alastair Fothergill, and the Series Producer is Huw Cordey. It was commissioned by Charlotte Moore, BBC Director of Content, and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual. It will tx in 2020.
Charles Dyer 