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BBC reveals major wildlife drive

MIPCOM: The BBC has made its “most ambitious and wide-ranging commitment” to natural history programming by ordering a host of blue-chip shows and launching an online UK home for the content.

Landmark series Shark and Dynasty will air on BBC1 while the broadcaster’s natural history brand BBC Earth – which was made available to international viewers last month – will launch on the firm’s UK website, providing factual shows, stories and images.

Three programmes featuring Sir David Attenborough have also been ordered, including Waking Giants for BBC1, and Attenborough’s Paradise Birds and Attenborough’s Big Birds which will air on BBC2.

Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, said the shows were “the most ambitious range of natural history ever commissioned.”

Shark (3×60′) is being coproduced for BBC1 by the broadcaster’s Natural History Unit (NHU) and Discovery and uses 4K and high-speed camera technology to film wildlife behaviour underwater that has never been seen before.

Discovery and the BBC ended their long-standing coproduction partnership last year, having previously collaborated on blue-chip natural history series including Frozen Planet, Blue Planet and Wonders of the Solar System.
The corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, stepped in as the new major coproduction partner for the BBC NHU and will distribute all of the programming announced today.

The BBC1 slate also includes NHU’s Invisible Nature: Flight Revealed (3×60’), about airborne creatures; and Pets: Wild At Heart (2×60′).

The latter is being coproduced by John Downer Productions, PBS and WNET and comes from the team behind Earthflight and the Spy franchise. The show uses night vision cameras, thermal imaging tech, Schlerien photography and moving X-rays to reveal how pets live.

John Downer is also working on Animals Like Us – Super Spy (5×60′), a copro with PBS that turns the camera on animals that behave like humans, including chimps, meerkats, elephants and wolves.

BBC2 will air Ireland – The Wild Edge of the World, a copro from Crossing the Line Productions, TG4, ORF, PBS, NDR and France TV Media that explores the country’s rugged coast; and Natural World: Africa’s Fishing Leopards, from Icon Films.

The Wild West (3×60′), from NHU, explores the US using 360-degree, motion-controlled time lapse photography, while Dynasty (5×60′) is being coproduced with BBC America and explores generations of animals.

Waking Giants (1×60′) is being produced by NHU and explores the discovery of dinosaur bones in a South American desert and has been ordered alongside Attenborough’s Paradise Birds (1×60′), also from NHU, for BBC2.

Attenborough’s Big Birds (1×60′) will reveal some of the world’s oddest birds, and will also air on BBC2. It is being produced by Mike Birkhead Associates, Thirteen and WNET.

BBC Earth’s new digital platform will allow viewers to share content and engage via social media, and explore how the world has changed since they were born via an interactive section called Your Life on Earth.

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