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Natural world |
| Natural World | |
 2007 series title card |
|
| Picture format | 4:3, 16:9 |
|---|---|
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Episode duration | 50 minutes |
| Creator(s) | BBC Natural History Unit |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| First shown on | BBC Two |
| Original run | 10 December 1967– |
| IMDb profile | |
Natural World is the longest-running nature documentary series on British television. 2008 marked the series’ 25th anniversary under its present title, though its origins can be traced back to its predecessor The World About Us which began over 40 years ago. Natural World is broadcast on BBC Two in the autumn and spring seasons, with 17 episodes commissioned by the BBC each year. Production duties are shared between its in-house Natural History Unit, independent UK production companies and leading wildlife filmmakers from around the world. Over 400 episodes have been screened in its first 25 years1. The current series editor is Tim Martin.
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In 1967, colour television was gradually being introduced to British audiences on the BBC’s recently launched second channel. David Attenborough, at that time the Controller of BBC Two, was seeking to expand the range of colour programmes on the fledgling channel. Formerly head of the BBC’s Travel and Exploration Unit in London, he realised that many of its telecine films had been shot in colour. Attenborough commissioned The World About Us, a documentary series with a broad remit of geography, anthropology and natural history subjects. It has been described by Barry Paine, a producer and narrator of many early Natural Worlds, as "a series designed to sell colour television sets"2. It was no accident that early episodes featured some of the most vibrant colours in the natural world. The first programme was a film by the French vulcanologist Haroun Tazieff, called simply "Volcano". It was broadcast on Sunday 3 December 1967, which also marked the first full evening of colour television in Britain. Another early episode featured the brilliantly-coloured scarlet ibis. Due to the difficulty in sourcing colour films, production duties were initially shared between the Travel and Exploration Unit in London and the Natural History Unit in Bristol. Over time, the London contribution dried up and the focus became exclusively on natural history.3 To reflect this, the series title was altered to The Natural World in 1983 and then shortened to its current form in 2003. The first episode under the new title was “Save the Panda”, broadcast on 30 October 1983. In September 2008 the BBC announced that the series had been re-commissioned for a further three years4.
I have no doubt that Natural World is not only the doyen and founding member of the 50-minute natural history genre but is still the one with the best and most distinguished record.
– David Attenborough
In commissioning The World About Us, David Attenborough also created the first documentary series whose programmes ran to 50 minutes rather than the half-hour films typical of the time. This allowed the filmmakers to make a more in-depth study of particular places, plants or animals5. The format has remained unchanged to the present day.
Although the series is characterised by large budgets and high production values, Natural World programmes rarely fall into the category of blue chip wildlife films (as defined by Derek Bouse6). The brief allows for experimentation in terms of presentation style and subject matter. Films with conservation messages and human-animal interaction feature alongside more traditional profiles of individual species and natural habitats. Some of the more unusual subject matter has included plankton, wasps and cephalopods.
David Attenborough has maintained a close association with the series over its long history, contributing narration to nearly 50 episodes and making occasional appearances in front of the camera. Some of his notable contributions include the Echo of the Elephants trilogy, in which scientist Cynthia Moss and cameraman Martyn Colbeck spent 15 years following an African elephant herd in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. In 1996, "Attenborough in Paradise" saw him fulfil a lifelong ambition to watch and film the courtship displays of New Guinea’s birds of paradise.
Within the Natural World strand there have also been occasional mini-series on particular themes. Notable examples include the three-part series The Flight of the Condor (1982), Kingdom of the Ice Bear (1985) (both released on VHS), and Wild Indonesia (1999).
The following is a chronological list of series editors, the most senior member of the production team on Natural World1. Peter Jones, the first series editor, also acted in the same capacity on The World About Us from 1979-1983.
Natural World filmmakers are regularly recognised by the television industry for the quality of their work. One of the earliest awards was the 1986 Prix Italia for Ecology for a special edition on soil erosion in the Vanishing Earth mini-series. In 1998, the Royal Television Society awarded the series the Best Documentary Strand Award.
In addition, the following individual films have recently won awards at the Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, Wildscreen Festival, Grierson British Documentary Awards and RTS Awards:
Some episodes of Natural World were released on VHS (see Notable Episodes section for examples) but all are now out of print.
A Region 2 DVD, The BBC Natural World Collection, was released in 2007 and contains the following six episodes from the 2006 and 2007 seasons)8:
The following episodes were released on individual Region 2 DVDs in 2008:
The UK releases of Planet Earth on HD DVD and Blu-ray includes the following 2 episodes of Natural World, both narrated by David Attenborough, in 1080i on a bonus disc:9
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