The BBC’s latest Sir David Attenborough series has been part-funded by two charities previously criticised for their political lobbying, it has emerged.
Wild Isles, a landmark natural history series launching this week on BBC One, has been co-produced by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The decision to take the charities’ money prompted “much internal agonising” at the BBC, according to Radio Times, over the question of whether the corporation should be “taking money from groups with any kind of campaigning agenda, particularly on a series with the environment at its heart”.
The BBC will also air a companion documentary commissioned by the charities themselves. Saving Our Wild Isles, also narrated by Sir David, is “inspired by the series” and will be shown on iPlayer.
Last September, the RSPB and WWF UK were among a group of environmental charities to sign an open letter protesting against details of the Government’s plans for ‘investment zones’ where planning rules could be relaxed, claiming that nature was “under attack”. Whitehall sources accused the charities of “playing politics”.
The series, Sir David’s first to be based in the UK, will address climate change and man-made damage to the environment.
The show’s producer, Alastair Fothergill, said: “Our main aim is to entertain and engage, and show people how important and wonderful British wildlife is. But in the wider sense we do think we can empower people.
“Purely practically, there’s not a lot you can do to stop the Amazon rainforest being cut down, but there’s an awful lot you can do to stop your local woodland being cut down.
“It might be that we can get our politicians to think more closely about HS2.”
The BBC can no longer afford to fund costly natural history series alone, and on recent productions has struck deals with foreign broadcasters.
In a statement, the BBC said: “The two charity partners invested in the production in return for rights which could be used as part of their outreach activity to raise awareness with the British public.
“As with other similar programmes… they were available to supply their expertise, alongside other independent experts, to the programme-makers. The series producers made their own editorial decisions on who to include in the final programmes and editorial control for the series rests with the BBC.”
On its website, the RSPB said Wild Isles would be "a powerful platform to build the broadest and most diverse movement for nature there's ever been, while WWF promoted the programme with a reference to the recent global heatwave highlighting "the threats facing the planet, people and wildlife".
In a joint response, the charities said: "In addition to our role as co-producers we provided science and conservation expertise alongside others. This, along with advice from a wide range of sources, helped establish the environmental credibility of the content, whilst not impacting on the final editorial decisions made by the BBC and the producers."
The series begins this Sunday and the first episode includes footage of a puffin colony on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire.
Sir David explains that bird numbers on Skomer have been steadily increasing, but elsewhere the puffin population has been damaged by overfishing and climate change.
Viewers will also see footage of Manx shearwater chicks leaving their underground burrows on Skomer.
Initially, the plan had been for Sir David to sit outside the burrows, and for the chicks to use him as a launch pad for their first flight.
“The shearwaters are not great at taking off, so what the warden on the island said is, ‘If you sit David close to the burrows, they will almost certainly climb up his arm onto his head and take off from his head.’ We thought, ‘Wow, that could be TV gold,’” said Fothergill.
However, two weeks before filming was due to start, reports came in of bird ‘flu on a neighbouring island.
Concerned about the risks to Sir David, 96, Fothergill contacted an expert on infectious diseases who told him: “Bird ‘flu is actually extremely hard to catch, but if he gets it he will die.”
The producers erred on the side of caution, and Sir David was placed some distance away.
