Planet Earth (2006 TV series)

Planet Earth is a natural history documentary series, made by the BBC (co-produced with Discovery Channel and NHK, in association with the CBC), transmitted from 5 March 2006. It is described by its makers as "the definitive look at the diversity of our planet", and is narrated by David Attenborough. It is also the first of its kind to be filmed entirely in high-definition format.

Background

The programmes were made over four years by producer Alastair Fothergill and his team, who were responsible for the successful The Blue Planet (2001). The narrator, David Attenborough, finished work on them prior to embarking on the last in his 'Life' series, Life in Cold Blood, which is due for completion in 2008. The series' music is composed by George Fenton.

Each of the eleven episodes (except the first) focuses on one of the Earth's natural habitats and examines its indigenous features, together with the breadth of fauna found there. Included are several sequences of animals and locations that have hitherto never been filmed, using innovative camera technology.

Each programme is of around 58 minutes' duration. This includes Planet Earth Diaries, a 10-minute featurette that details the filming of a particular event, which is shown as an addendum.

The show has been heavily trailed on the BBC's television and radio channels both before and during its run. The first five instalments had a 9pm Sunday screening on BBC One followed by an early evening repeat the following Saturday on BBC Two. Besides being BBC One's featured "One to Watch" programme of the day, its ratings have been consistently high, averaging between eight and nine million viewers for each Sunday transmission.

In the UK, the series was split into two parts. Episodes 1–5 were shown 5 March–2 April 2006 and the remainder are to be broadcast from 5 November, following a further repeat run of part one on BBC Four, which began 8 October. Part two will again premiere on Sundays at 9pm on BBC One, but the BBC Two repeat has been moved to 7pm on Mondays.

Episodes

"A hundred years ago, there were one and a half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity. This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet and its wildlife as you have never seen them before."

— David Attenborough's opening narration

1. "From Pole to Pole"

Broadcast 5 March 2006, the first episode illustrates a 'journey' around the globe and reveals the effect of gradual climatic change and seasonal transitions en route. During Antarctica's winter, emperor penguins endure four months of darkness, with no food, in temperatures of minus 70°C. Meanwhile, as spring arrives in the Arctic, polar bear cubs take their first steps into a world of rapidly thawing ice. In northern Canada, the longest overland migration of any animal — over 2000 miles — is that of three million caribou, which are hunted by wolves. The forests of eastern Russia are home to the amur leopard: with a population of just 40 individuals, it is the world's rarest cat. However, in the tropics, the jungle that covers 3% of the planet's surface supports 50% of its animals. Also depicted is the one-second strike of a great white shark as it pounces on a seal, slowed down forty times. Other species shown include New Guinea's birds of paradise, African hunting dogs in their efficient pursuit of impala, swimming elephants in Africa and 300,000 migrating baikal teal. The Planet Earth Diaries segment shows how the wild dog hunt was filmed unobtrusively with the aid of the "heli-gimbal": a powerful, giro-stabilised camera mounted beneath a helicopter.

2. "Mountains"

Broadcast 12 March 2006, the second instalment focuses on the mountains. All the main ranges are explored with extensive aerial photography. Ethiopia's Erta Ale is the longest continually erupting volcano — for over 100 years. On the nearby highlands, geladas (the only primate to live almost entirely on grass) inhabit precipitous slopes nearly three miles up, in troops that are 800-strong: the most numerous of their kind. The Andes have the most volatile weather, and guanacos are shown enduring a flash blizzard, along with a rare group sighting of the normally solitary puma. The Alpine summits are always snow-covered, apart from that of the Matterhorn, which is too sheer to allow it to settle. Grizzly bear cubs emerge from their den for the first time in the Rockies, while Himalayan inhabitants include the snow leopard, rutting markhor and golden eagles that hunt migrating demoiselle cranes. At the eastern end of the range, a giant panda cradles her week-old cub. Also shown is the Earth's biggest mountain glacier: the Baltoro in Pakistan, which is 43 miles long and visible from space. Planet Earth Diaries demonstrates the difficulty of obtaining the first ever close-up footage of the snow leopards — a process which took over a year.

3. "Fresh Water"

Broadcast 19 March 2006, this programme describes the course taken by rivers and some of the species that take advantage of such a habitat. Only 3% of the world's water is fresh, yet all life is ultimately dependent on it. Its journey begins as a stream in the mountains, illustrated by Venezuela's Tepui, where there is a tropical downpour almost every day. It then travels hundreds of miles before forming rapids. With the aid of some expansive helicopter photography, one sequence demonstrates the vastness of Angel Falls, the world's highest free-flowing waterfall. The erosive nature of rivers is shown by the Grand Canyon, created over five million years by the Colorado River. In Japan, the water is inhabited by the biggest amphibian, the two-meter long giant salamander, while in the northern hemisphere, salmon undertake the largest freshwater migration, and are hunted en route by grizzly bears. Also featured are smooth-coated otters repelling mugger crocodiles and the latter's Nile cousin ambushing wildebeest. In addition, there are cichlids, piranhas, river dolphins and swimming crab-eating macaques. Planet Earth Diaries shows how a patient camera crew filmed a piranha feeding frenzy in Brazil — after a two-week search for the opportunity.

File:Planet earth Lechuguilla.png

The Lechuguilla Cave

4. "Caves"

Broadcast 26 March 2006, this episode explores the planet's "final frontier": the world of caves and tunnels. Mexico's Cave of Swallows is, at 400 meters, the Earth's deepest, and diving into it is akin to jumping off New York City's Empire State Building. Also featured is Borneo's Deer Cave. Its inhabitants include three million wrinkle-lipped bats that live on its ceiling and deposit guano on to an enormous mound below, which is 100 meters high and is blanketed with feeding cockroaches. In addition, there are glimpses of a number of subterranean, eyeless creatures, such as the Texan cave salamander and even a species of crab. The programme ends in the recently discovered Lechuguilla Cave where sulphuric acid had carved unusually ornate, gypsum crystal formations. Planet Earth Diaries reveals how a camera team spent a month among thousands of cockroaches on a tower of bat guano, and the logistics needed to photograph Lechuguilla Cave.

5. "Deserts"

Broadcast 2 April 2006, this episode features the harsh environment that covers one third of the Earth: the deserts. Due to Siberian winds, Mongolia's Gobi Desert reaches extremes of temperature like no other, ranging from -40°C to +50°C. It is home to the rare Bactrian camel, which eats snow to maintain its fluid level. Africa's Sahara is the size of the USA, and just one of its severe dust storms could cover the whole of Great Britain: for some creatures, the only escape from such a bombardment is to bury themselves in the sand. However, the biggest dunes (300 meters high) are to be found in Namibia. Other deserts featured are the Atacama in Chile, the Sonoran in Arizona, and areas of the Australian outback and Utah. Animals shown surviving in such an unforgiving habitat include elephants, lions (hunting oryx), red kangaroos (who moisten their forelegs with saliva to keep cool), nocturnal fennec foxes, acrobatic flat lizards feeding on black flies, and duelling Nubian ibex. The final sequence illustrates one of nature's most fearsome spectacles: a billion-strong plague of desert locusts, destroying all vegetation in its path. Planet Earth Diaries explains how the hunt for the elusive Bactrian camels necessitated a two-month trek in Mongolia.

6. "Ice Worlds"

Due for broadcast 5 November 2006.

• The following transmission dates are based on the schedule pattern of part one and may change:

7. "Great Plains"

Due for broadcast 12 November 2006.

8. "Jungles"

Due for broadcast 19 November 2006.

9. "Shallow Seas"

Due for broadcast 26 November 2006.

10. "Seasonal Forests"

Due for broadcast 3 December 2006.

11. "Ocean Deep"

Due for broadcast 10 December 2006.

Planet Earth: The Future

The latter episodes will be augmented by Planet Earth: The Future, a short series of three 50-minute films that will highlight the conservation issues surrounding some of the featured species. It will begin transmission on BBC Four after the ninth episode, "Shallow Seas".

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Planet Earth DVD
© BBC

DVD and books

A five-disc DVD set of the complete series (BBCDVD1883) is scheduled for release on 27 November 2006. There has been no announcement regarding a high-definition version on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD format.

An accompanying hardback book, written by Alastair Fothergill with a foreword by David Attenborough, was published by BBC Books on 5 October 2006 (ISBN 0-563-52212-7). In addition, a 'behind the scenes' paperback, Planet Earth: The Making of an Epic Series by David Nicholson-Lord, was published by BBC Books on 9 March 2006 (ISBN 0-563-49358-5).

Overseas

The BBC pre-sold the series to several overseas broadcasters. Among them are:

• ABC, Australia
• CBC, Canada
• DR, Denmark
• YLE, Finland
• WDR, Germany
• RÚV, Iceland
• Prime Television, New Zealand
• SIC, Portugal
• SVT, Sweden
• NTV, Turkey

In addition, BBC Worldwide and Greenlight Media have secured financing for a $15m film version of Planet Earth, to be distributed in several territories. This follows the earlier success of a theatrical edition of The Blue Planet, entitled Deep Blue. It is of 90 minutes' duration and will be released from autumn 2007.

The BBC has not made any announcement regarding transmission of the series in the USA.

Trivia

• The music featured in the trailer for the series is the track "Hoppípolla" from the album Takk... by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. Following the advertisements, interest was so widespread that the single was re-released.
• Trailers for the series' Australian release featured "'Jupiter", the fourth movement of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite, The Planets.
• For the "Caves" episode, it took the crew two years to get permission to film Lechuguilla Cave's "chandelier ballroom" — where the most exquisite crystals are found — and local authorities are unlikely to ever allow another such visit.
• Along with its 2005 dramatisation of Bleak House, the BBC selected Planet Earth for its trial of high-definition broadcasts. The opening episode was its first ever scheduled programme in the format, shown 27 May 2006 on BBC HD.
• "Great Plains" received its public premiere at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on 26 August 2006. It was shown on a giant screen in Conference Square.

External links

• BBC Planet Earth site
• TimesOnline: Alastair Fothergill discusses Planet Earth