The Kingdom: How Fungi Made Our World • 2018

59:04

Naturalist and explorer Steve Backshall leads a team on a mission to summit a remote and unclimbed mountain deep in Greenland’s Arctic wilderness.

Undiscovered Worlds with Steve Backshall • 2019 • Nature

43:37

No two islands in the Galapagos are the same. The imperceptible drift of a continental plate keeps each island biologically isolated. David Attenborough explores this evolutionary crucible, encountering tortoises that weigh up to half a tonne, finches that use tools and lizards that communicate using press-ups; for Darwin, this was all evidence for his theory of evolution. We see the final footage of the world famous tortoise fondly known as Lonesome George, the last survivor of his species. David Attenborough was the last person to have ever filmed with him. Darwin’s famous visit had a downside – the arrival of man. David investigates the impact we’ve had in these islands, as our influence is a double-edged sword. We’ve disrupted the natural balance but he also believes Darwin would be thrilled with the advances we have made in science. We’re also now uncovering evidence that evolution is more rapid than Darwin could ever have imagined. Whatever wonders the Galapagos Islands hold today, they are only a hint of what awaits them in the future.

S1E3 • Galapagos with David Attenborough • 2010 • Nature

58:32

In this episode, Chris Packham tells the almost implausible story of how our world went from a barren rock with a sky of endless black, to the planet we know today, cloaked in the thin blue line of our life-sustaining atmosphere. When Earth first formed from clouds of dust and gas 4.6 billion years ago, it was - like so many other lifeless worlds in the universe - devoid of an atmosphere, an inhospitable rock floating in the black void of space. But as the young planet was pummelled by asteroids a period of extraordinary upheaval began. Over a two-billion-year period, the planet faced violent eruptions and a toxic orange haze, vast oceans of water in the sky and seas turning rusty red. Eventually, with the emergence of life and photosynthesis recalibrating the gases in our atmosphere, the stage was set for Earth to become the vibrant azure-skied planet we call home today.

S1E4 • Earth: One Planet, Many Lives • 2023 • Nature

26:04

Animals that live life on the wing, have a vast expanse of the sky to navigate, find mates, locate food, and avoid predators... Living in this aerial realm requires a unique set of senses, specialized to cope with life above ground.

S1E9 • Animal Super Senses • 2020 • Nature

88:47

A fascinating look at the secret, underground world of the ant colony in a way that has never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially-designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad. For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Professor Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology. The ants instantly begin to forage, farm, mine and build. Within weeks, the colony has established everything from nurseries to gardens to graveyards. The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. This unique project reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.

2013 • Nature

58:00

Cameras follow Japanese macaques in the snow-covered mountains of Japan, as they gather at steaming hot thermal pools to bathe and socialise. Elsewhere in the cool mountains of Mexico, cameras capture a spectacular gathering of billions of monarch butterflies, and in Bavaria, Germany, Spy Beaver gains unique access to the secretive world of the beaver.

S2E2 • Spy in the Wild • 2020 • Nature