Episode 5 • 2019 • episode "S1E5" • Blue Planet UK

59:16

David Attenborough takes a breathtaking journey through the vast and diverse continent of Africa as it has never been seen before. (Part 5: Sahara) Northern Africa is home to the greatest desert on Earth, the Sahara. On the fringes, huge zebras battle over dwindling resources and naked mole rats avoid the heat by living a bizarre underground existence. Within the desert, where the sand dunes 'sing', camels seek out water with the help of their herders and tiny swallows navigate across thousands of square miles to find a solitary oasis. This is a story of an apocalypse and how, when nature is overrun, some are forced to flee, some endure, but a few seize the opportunity to establish a new order.

S1E5 • Africa • 2013 • Nature

89:30

From the food on our tables to the fuel in our cars, crude oil seeps invisibly into almost every part of our modern lives. Yet many of us have little idea of the incredible journey it has made to reach our petrol tanks and plastic bags from its origins millions of years ago.

2007 • Nature

53:45

The next programme explores the various sea-living invertebrates. In Morocco, the limestones are 600 million years old, and contain many invertebrate fossils. They fall broadly into three categories: shells, crinoids and segmented shells. The evolution of shelled creatures is demonstrated with the flatworm, which eventually changed its body shape when burrowing became a necessity for either food or safety. It then evolved shielded tentacles and the casings eventually enveloped the entire body: these creatures are the brachiopods. The most successful shelled animals are the molluscs, of which there are some 80,000 different species.

2/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature

58:58

Wildlife series. The team push deeper into the rainforest, enlisting the help of a tribe to find and film the birds of paradise as they perform their courtship displays.

S1E2 • Lost Land of the Volcano • 2009 • Nature

48:33

The ocean's influence dominates the world's weather systems and supports an enormous range of life. This first episode demonstrates the sheer scale, power and complexity of the "Blue Planet".

S1E1 • Blue Planet I • 2001 • Nature

53:37

This instalment is the first of several to concentrate on mammals. The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs (in much the same manner of reptiles), and it is from such animals that others in the group evolved. Since mammals have warm blood and most have dense fur, they can hunt at night when temperatures drop. It is for this reason that they became more successful than their reptile ancestors, who needed to heat themselves externally. Much of the programme is devoted to marsupials (whose young are partially formed at birth) of which fossils have been found in the Americas dating back 60 million years.

9/13 • Life on Earth • 1979 • Nature