Hidden Japan • 2020

58:29

Professor Richard Fortey delves into the fascinating and normally-hidden kingdom of fungi. From their spectacular birth, through their secretive underground life to their final explosive death, Richard reveals a remarkable world that few of us understand or even realise exists - yet all life on Earth depends on it. In a specially-built mushroom lab, with the help of mycologist Dr Patrick Hickey and some state-of-the-art technology, Richard brings to life the secret world of mushrooms as never seen before and reveals the spectacular abilities of fungi to break down waste and sustain new plant life, keeping our planet alive. Beyond the lab, Richard travels across Britain and beyond to show us the biggest, fastest and most deadly organisms on the planet - all of them fungi. He reveals their almost magical powers that have world-changing potential - opening up new frontiers in science, medicine and technology.

2014 • Nature

58:54

Exploring the realm of the creatures to better understand how they have evolved. Travelling from the rain forests of French Guiana to the Arctic Ocean, scientists use traditional and cutting edge techniques to examine both modern insects and the fossil record in their search for a single common insect ancestor.

2024 • Nature

58:11

Coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine species. Survival in these undersea mega-cities is a challenge with many different solutions. A turtle heads to the reef's equivalent of a health spa - but she must use trickery to avoid the queue. A remarkable Grouper uses the fish equivalent of sign language to collaborate with an octopus, flushing their prey out of hiding holes. A metre-long, ferocious-jawed Bobbit Worm hides in its tunnel. Monocle Bream retaliate by squirting water to expose its sandy lair.

S1E3 • Blue Planet II • 2017 • Nature

29:18

The third episode looks at the last generation of killer dinosaurs - carnivores that took killing to a new level. By the end of the cretaceous period - 75 millions years ago - these gigantic and specialised hunter-killers had spread throughout the globe. In the southern continents it was the powerful and muscular abelisaurids that reigned supreme but it was the famous tyrannosaurids (or tyrant dinosaurs) that dominated in the north. Whilst the northern daspletosaurus hunted in gangs, using its highly developed smell and hearing to take down opponents like the horned rhino-sized beast, chasmosaurus, in the Southern hemisphere the small-skulled majungasaurus reigned. And though the sharp toothed majungasaurus was an efficient killer of the much smaller feathered rahonavis that did not stop it from occasionally turning cannibal and hunting its own.

S1E3 • Planet Dinosaur • 2011 • Nature

57:58

The team set off beneath the waves to explore this spectacular archipelago. It is an exciting opportunity for the team to delve into a world that still largely remains a mystery to science. Venturing down in the Nadir, a specially equipped deep sea submersible, Liz goes in search of an elusive ocean giant, the mola, or sunfish, to understand more about its little-known behaviour in the deep. On the way back to the Alucia, Liz checks in on a playful sea lion population to see how they have been affected by a recent extreme weather event, El Nino. Back on board the Alucia, the team sets sail north for the most remote and inhospitable islands in the Galapagos - Wolf and Darwin. Here, Liz joins the team tagging and tracking hammerhead sharks that school at this location in huge numbers as they try to unlock the secrets of this stunning behaviour. But nothing can prepare the Alucia crew for the power of the ocean in this isolated marine wonderland.

S1E2 • Galapagos with Liz Bonnin • 2017 • Nature

57:54

The Ocean is where life first experimented with the Mating Game, and over time this has led to some of the most ingenious mating strategies of all!

S1E2 • The Mating Game • 2021 • Nature