BBC bosses have revealed a raft of new natural history programming on the eve of the COP26 conference - including a seven-part landmark series on Asia and a TV special on prehistoric mammoths with Sir David Attenborough.
In Asia, the wonder of the world’s largest continent will be brought to life for the first time in a dedicated BBC series, likely to air in 2024.
With new filming locations opening up in areas previously off-limits to crews, it is now possible to tell wildlife stories there for the first time in decades. The continent is home to six species of bear, three species of rhino and five species of big cat - more than Africa. It is also the land of the unexpected - flying lemurs, vampire moths and the bizarre bearcat.
The aim with the series, called Asia, is to showcase the breath-taking variety of the area’s epic landscapes and spectacular wildlife, from the vast Arabian desert, to the unexplored jungles of Sulawesi, and from the polar wilderness of Siberia, to the tropical coral seas of the Indian Ocean.
The region has the highest mountain range - the Himalayas; the deepest ocean – the Mariana Trench in the Pacific; the tallest jungles – Danum valley in Borneo; the biggest cave – Hang Son Doong in Vietnam; and the greatest number of active volcanoes.
Filming locations include the Tibetan plateau, the mighty Taiga forest, the Gobi Desert and some of the 17,000 islands of Indonesia. The series will also reveal animals that thrive at the heart of Asia’s mega cities - Shanghai, Jakarta, Mumbai and Tokyo.
Much sooner will come a special with Sir David, in which he joins an archaeological dig uncovering Britain’s biggest mammoth discovery in almost 20 years.
In Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, the 95-year-old naturalist visits a gravel quarry near Swindon, where two amateur fossil hunters found an extraordinary cache of Ice Age mammoth remains and a stone ‘hand axe’ made by a Neanderthal in 2017.
In the programme, to air early next year, he joins biologist Prof. Ben Garrod and a team of archaeologists and palaeontologists as they carefully excavate this prehistoric crime scene.
The BBC is also making a documentary which looks into the sinking of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior in 1985. The ship was bombed by the French operating in New Zealand to prevent the environmental campaigners from protesting against France’s nuclear testing on South Pacific islands.
The film, to be shown in 2022, explores the shocking legacy of nuclear testing by the Western powers, the botched French operation, the dramatic police investigation and international fallout at the height of the Cold War.
With new testimony from the spies, detectives, activists and politicians involved, it promises to be a timely tale of state terrorism, environmental passion and international power play.
And a final special, also airing next year, is The Pride, featuring TV’s most-loved group of lions - the Marsh pride of the Maasai Mara. These big cats have been filmed by the BBC and other broadcasters around the world for over 30 years.
Now they will feature in a story told by those who filmed them, those who tried to protect them - and those who wanted them dead.
Called simply The Pride, it shows how the fortune of the pride hangs on being able to keep the many threats against it at bay long enough for the young to be raised to adulthood.
BBC factual boss Jack Bootle said: "When it comes to Science and Natural History programming, the BBC leads the way - and this raft of fascinating ideas proves it. From Asia to the Masai Mara, from Ice Age excavations to modern-day environmental thrillers, no other broadcaster is as committed to telling stories about the state of our planet today and the science of life on earth.”
