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On location with Blue Planet II

2017-10-16T09:59:49+00:00

Filming Orcas and Humpbacks on the Fjords of Northern Norway

“You come in to the field with a plan, but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

Ted Giffords, Cameraman

Humpback Whales

“You come in to the field with a plan,” says cameraman Ted Giffords, “but ultimately you do what nature tells you.”

The plan, for a key sequence in the BBC’s forthcoming Blue Planet II, was to try and film an amazing new behaviour. It’s one of countless new behaviours that viewers will see on Blue Planet II, not least because, as series Executive Producer James Honeyborne says, the science has moved on.

“New discoveries have given us a completely fresh perspective on life beneath the waves. What you’ll see across the series are new stories featuring new species, new places, new behaviours, all filmed in new ways. Our USP is very much newness.”

This particular piece of newness consisted of a marine double act featuring both Killer whales and Humpback Whales. More than a decade ago Blue Planet, the BBC’s last landmark story of the seas, filmed Orca working Herring. ‘Working’ means corralling the fish, bamboozling them, wrangling them in to a tight ball like a border collie with a flock of sheep. Then the Orca stuns one or two with a flap of its tail and ends up with a meal floating deadweight in front of it.

What scientists have observed in recent years - is that Humpback Whales, all 30+ tonnes of them, have started to get in on the act. Humpback Whales are thought to react to the commotion of the Orcas corralling the Herring. Swooping in and opening up their vast mouths, the Humpbacks swim through the buffet that the Orcas have so generously laid on for them, and gobbling up dozens of fish in a single pass. It’s a smash and grab run of epic proportions.

The plan sounded simple: film this behaviour happening. But in order to locate the whales on the infinite fjords of northern Norway, the crew need to do what nature is telling them.

Nature’s message is relayed by seagulls. The footballer Eric Cantona was mocked when he talked about seagulls following trawlers in the hope of finding fish, but his rationale was sound. The seagulls do indeed follow the trawlers when there are Herring to be had, and it is herring that the Orca, and hence the Humpbacks, will follow.

Today is day 10 of a two week shoot, but it’s also the culmination of two years’ work. Producer Jonathan Smith has been following the herring, and thence the Orca and the Humpbacks, for two years for this sequence. He has done stints underwater, diving with a rebreather (to avoid bubbles on camera) in near freezing temperatures. He has tracked the Herring from out in the open Arctic in to the fjords, where for reasons we still don’t quite fathom they have moved just this last year. The whales have followed. They may not be here next year; they weren’t here when Blue Planet I was filmed. This is Smith’s last shoot. He has yet to see a Humpback pull off its heist.

We are so far north, inside the Arctic Circle, stationed on the remote island of Vengsoya, that the days are hopelessly short. It is deep in to November and every day the sun comes up 20 minutes later. Light is at a premium - it’s workable from about 11am today and it will expire at about 2.30pm. And so a converted fishing boat is readied before sunrise and we head out on to the fjords in the mizzle.

Natural history work takes you to remote places but it is rarely a solitary pursuit. As we run north towards the open ocean Smith is messaging a network of contacts - scientists from the Norwegian Orca Survey, fishermen, guides - all of whom are out on boats of their own already. Cameraman Ted Giffords has his own assistance, in the form of a 1,000 millimetres long lens on a giro-stabilised boom arm, handy for spotting gatherings of gulls at several kilometres. He’s glued to his screen, on look out. And Skipper Torre has an app, naturally, for monitoring marine traffic. It tells him where the boats are, what they are and if they’re fishing. Cantona Theory dictates that boats + seagulls = Herring, and Herring = Orcas. Humpbacks are the final variable in the calculus. You need all of the elements, plus the light and a dab of luck, to be in with a chance of a shot. So far they haven’t got any decent footage of the Humpback bursting through with its mouth open - the money shot - in ten days on the water.

Jonathan Smith promises an abundance of Orcas and so inevitably we start off finding none. There is a slight tension as phones are checked, charts scanned and far off, shadowy surface ripples turn out to be everything but whales. There’s not much time.

The sun, when it does rise, barely makes it above the horizon, a pink bedspread laid on the skyline. But as it does, at around 10.30am, a tip-off comes in, and Smith orders the boat to be turned around. We head to Kaldfjorden. It’s a 300 metre deep, 10 mile-long inlet that cuts south and then south-east between stark snow-topped peaks. We motor there to find trawlers and gulls at the far end and still we see… nothing. Smith remains positive - a requirement of the job, I suspect - “These seas contain the most amazing biomass of animals in the ocean,” he says. “Normally we’d have seen loads of Orcas by now.’”

You have to be prepared. Ted Giffords is in charge of the Cineflex camera that will get us the shot, if only the sea life would oblige. The Cineflex allows the boat to be bobbing all over the place while the shot remains still and composed. There are between five and ten Cineflexs of this type in the world - they’re hard to track down because they were originally designed for the American military and they can’t be moved from country to country without specific security clearance. This one has a 4K camera inside its sealed, counter-weighted housing and it can shoot in slow-motion; previous series like The Hunt couldn’t, and they weren’t filmed in such high definition. But higher definition requires more light. Giffords notices that his technical explanations are losing me:

“Basically it’s harder to do but the end result is better. People will notice a difference.”

You can’t not notice an Orca, especially in these flat, calm waters - their dorsal fins can be up to 6ft high on a male, and they travel in pods, usually five or more. Their stately silhouette is unique. Smith and his crew are seasoned spotters, and a tap on the shoulder alerts me to our first sighting, with one, two, then three spouts as the Orcas blow, several hundred metres away. We chug in their direction and on the way spot our other cast members - Humpback ‘blows’ are bushier and more spread out, I’m told. The sight of the Humpbacks’ magnificent tails rising, fluking and slipping away has me excited, but the crew are unmoved: they’re just ‘logging’ or relaxing, not feeding.

Suddenly there are Orca wherever you look down the Kaldfjorden, carving elongated Ms through the surface, while humpbacks rise and dive in tandem. With the sun now up and the mountains glistening it is an awesome spectacle – but it’s a distraction, and I fail to notice what’s happening on our other side, right up by the shore. It’s a group of Orcas, swimming back and forth in formation, so close to the water’s edge it’s as if they’re on watch. Smith is excited. “They’re definitely working fish. This could be about to kick off.”

And then it kicks off.

“Halve the distance between here and the shore,” Smith calls to skipper as he grabs his binoculars. “Pick them up at one o’clock so we can keep the view… Humpbacks at 10.’

It sounds like he’s expecting the animals to arrive on a pre-arranged schedule, until I realise that the hands of a clock are the shorthand amongst captain, producer and cameraman for target location.

The Orca swim away but there’s a shadow visible beneath the surface, heading directly towards where they were. Smith tells Giffords to bring the camera to three or four, Giffords thinks they need to be on the other side, but Smith tells him there’s no time, something is going to happen now, and right on cue small fish start leaping out of the water, churning it up like it’s coming to a fierce boil. The sound makes me spin round just in time to catch sight of 36 tonnes of Humpback whale arcing out and then back down through the surface. I cannot believe what I have just seen.

But the team know instantly that they have not seen enough: Smith and Giffords take a look at what they just filmed, and even though it’s all there in stunning close-up the humpback’s immense mouth only occupies the left of the picture.

“To get that magic it needs to be full frame,” says Smith.

The captain turns the boat around. They know by now that a hungry Humpback will take several passes at a hearty fish supper, and even better, the Orca are back, pushing the Herring even closer to the shore, driving the fish in to the shallows where they can’t escape. With a silvery slick of fish at the surface, the Humpback must surface too. We wait, but not for long. The Cineflex camera hangs over the edge of the boat, and again the whale’s shadow ghosts towards us. This time Giffords is ready and the spectacle is centre stage: as the whale surfaces the water becomes pockmarked and froths with fleeing fish. And then the whale breaks the surface, mouth gaping open, an epic parabola of baleen-plate teeth, humped back, small dorsal and disappearing fluke, before a colossal crash; the vast shadow recedes quietly in to the deep.

The crew holler and celebrate. “We have one!” says Ted Giffords as Smith congratulates his men. It is the first major behaviour shot they have got on this stint, the culmination of a new piece of scientific observation that it’s hard to credit as real until it’s been filmed and shown. And yet still the light remains the most precious commodity, and so minutes later we’re off again in search of another piece of ‘magic'. The ocean is boundless and there’s always more to see. The Blue Planet film crew just have to find it.

“It’s a cliché,” says Jonathan Smith, still with binoculars in hand, “but the only time you don’t get something is when you stop looking."

And that’s a theme that goes not only for this shoot but for the whole Blue Planet II series.

“We’ve completed 125 expeditions to 38 countries around the world, and our camera teams have worked in every continent and across every ocean,” says James Honeyborne, back in the UK. “One of the things that has really fascinated me during the making of this series is the extent to which we’re on the front line: we’re not just reporting these scientific stories, we’re actually help uncovering new scientific stories. So much so that at least 15 scientific papers are being written on behaviours we’ve filmed. That’s the levels of newness we’re at, that is the great opportunity of being in the sea, and that’s the great excitement for us.”

Blue Planet II starts Sunday 29 October at 8pm on BBC One. To find out more about the series read the full media pack or watch the prequel on iPlayer now.

Mary Adams and other BBC female pioneers who inspired my love for Natural History

2017-03-08T12:59:21+00:00

If you ask someone to describe what a wildlife filmmaker looks like, I suspect they’d paint a portrait of a man with a beard and a big camera wearing camouflage gear. But I’m a wildlife filmmaker - I’m a petite, 38-year old woman, and there are plenty of others like me.

I’ve worked as a wildlife filmmaker for the BBC Natural History Unit for the last 13 years, most recently producing and directing a film about Islands that opened the recent David Attenborough series Planet Earth II. In the three and a half years of making the episode, I camped in the world’s largest penguin colony, watched racer snakes hunting down baby marine iguanas on a remote beach in Galapagos and got eaten alive by mosquitos in the Seychelles (it was not an island paradise experience).

Inhabitants of Zavodovksi Island, the world's largest penguin colony

When it broadcast in November last year, Planet Earth II - Islands became the most-watched wildlife show for more than 15 years, attracting more than 12 million viewers, and was the most requested programme on iPlayer for the whole of 2016. Something many people commented on, was how “nice” it was that it was produced/directed by a woman.

I guess it’s easy to assume that natural history filmmaking is a very male-dominated world. Sir David Attenborough is the face of natural history broadcasting in Britain, and we get very used to seeing male cameramen struggling in filming hides as part of ‘making-of’ segments. But the story behind the scenes is a very different one, for wildlife filmmaking – and indeed documentary filmmaking in general – is an environment that is rich in women and has been for many years.

The first female television producer at the BBC was Mary Adams who joined the corporation in 1936. She was a 30-year old former research scientist, married (at a time when most professions barred married women from work) and she had a rich and successful career as a documentary producer and commissioner in the field of science. It was Mary Adams who spotted a young David Attenborough in 1952, and later commissioned Zoo Quest, a series he proposed in conjunction with London Zoo, which first brought Attenborough to the television screens.

Mary Adams

In my 13 years at the BBC, there have been many highly talented female wildlife film producers to draw inspiration from, including Martha Holmes (The Blue Planet) and Vanessa Berlowitz (Frozen Planet, Planet Earth). Many among the commissioning team and controllers for science and natural history have been female – indeed the current head of BBC content is a woman, Charlotte Moore.

Granted, the presence of women on-screen in science and natural history seems somewhat less common than seeing male presenters but when they do appear, they can be hugely inspirational. Watching Martha Holmes don a bubble helmet for the series Sea Trek in the early 1990s was a major factor in me wanting to learn to scuba dive and ultimately do a PhD in fish biology.

On Planet Earth II, more than half the production team were female, including all the production co-ordinators and many of the researchers and directors on location. For our penguin filming on Zavodovksi Island (the most remote and ‘committed’ shoot of the series) it was a woman who advised on field/camp safety, and one of the three boat captains that sailed us 8 days through the volatile Southern Ocean, was a female. This is something that would have been incomprehensible 40 years ago, as women were actively discouraged from working in Antarctica - women didn’t over-winter on British science bases until the 1990s.

There are still areas where women are very under-represented in documentary filmmaking. For example, you see relatively few female wildlife camera operators in broadcasting, and there is no doubt in my mind women often have to work harder to ‘prove themselves’ in the field, compared with men. But women can be excellent team leaders, and highly creative storytellers. I’m hopeful that, one day, the stereotype of ‘producer/director’ may just as easily be female.

Elizabeth White is producer/director of 'Planet Earth II: Islands'.

Return to Planet Earth

2016-11-04T16:47:44+00:00

This weekend the BBC Natural History Unit's landmark series Planet Earth returns for a new series. Creative Director Mike Gunton reflects on his inspiration for telling the story of the natural world.

I remember when I was about 13 years old my school’s biology department had a little pond at the back. It was spring and the biology teacher suggested that a friend and I should go and look at the new baby frogs in the pond. Of course we started trying to catch them and I remember holding one in my hand thinking how tiny they looked.

Looking back I think my fascination with nature started in that moment – the idea that hidden away in this pond – un-seeable to the majority of us – was a heaving mass of beautiful tiny, tiny frogs.

Then when I was a bit older and got my first camera, I realized that a camera could show things the human eye couldn’t see. In a way those little frogs have been my inspiration - trying to show other people the ‘un-seeable’. That’s what I try to do today, giving audiences a chance to see what they wouldn’t or couldn’t normally get to see.

If I had to tell someone what I do I’d describe myself as a filmmaker. My job is to come up with ideas, get the ingredients together and then work with my colleagues to turn those ideas into the best TV programmes we can.

Those programmes – those made by the BBC Studio’s brilliant Natural History Unit – have over the years been pretty successful. But the job has two sides to the coin. I think, in some ways the business of filming nature is a serious one - filmmakers are trusted to deploy enormous resources and work in challenging environments, often very remote, out of contact from any help.

We’re having to be responsible – there’s a lot at stake. On the other hand, as storytellers we’re also trying to keep a lightness when trying to reveal and communicate the wonder of nature. It would be all too easy to be a bit grand or pompous about it all. We can’t do that. It’s quite a juggling act.

I think the key to the Natural History Unit’s success is that it’s always evolving, we learn from each other, sharing experience and knowledge in a way that’s unparalleled. It’s also very broad - we’re given permission to employ different techniques to tell a huge range of stories - I have my approach to telling stories about the natural world, others have a different approach. In fact we not only have the permission to tell these stories in different ways but I think a duty as well. I personally don’t think there are many organisations which can claim that breadth of coverage and approach.

If you ask me what the has changed since the first Planet Earth and Planet Earth II - and so how they are different - I think for me there are at least three things.

The first is filming technology – over ten years - partly stimulated by original Planet Earth, there have been a whole series of programmes have lit the fires of technical innovation. The extraordinary development in technology, whether its drones, miniaturisation, new gyro stabilized handheld cameras or remotely operated cameras, we have been able to bring them together in this one series to draw back the veil of secrecy the shrouds the natural world.

Secondly, in the last 10 years there seems to have been an extraordinary upsurge in scientific investigation into the natural world. Not only that, the wealth of information is being so much more readily shared - scientists are shooting their own video, taking photos, posting stories so new knowledge is not only ever advancing but easier and quicker to access.

Thirdly, the sense of the fragility of the natural world is becoming more and more front of mind– we’re more and more conscious of that compared with even 10 years ago. Our experience in making this series was often underscored by a sense of human encroachment into the natural world and the peril that can bring. There are of course some encouraging reversals where we’ve seen enlightened conservation policies in places that were previously looking like they were heading for trouble – but the trend feels it’s going the wrong way for nature. We felt that needed some acknowledgement in the series. Coupled with that we also felt we needed to feature a habitat that wasn’t featured in the original Planet Earth - the one built by humanity. So we’ve one episode on cities and the animals that share the urban world with us. It’s an amazing film, beautiful and thought provoking at the same time.

And if I can have an additional difference to my list of three – there’s a difference in execution. The original Planet Earth had the sense of observing the planet from almost a god-like perspective. It was at the time a unique and powerful perspective. In the new series we’re looking at the world - the environment - through the animals eyes: and now we can run, swim and fly with them. Its very involving and I think brings home both the drama of their lives and their relationship with the habitat where thy live. And that in itself a reflection of the technical innovation which has occurred during the intervening years.

The worldwide impact of Planet Earth is almost incalculable. Wherever I go in the world people ask “Were you involved in Planet Earth?” It’s such a brilliant name for a start, its so evocative yet so simple. The first series came at the right time, at a point where I think people felt a need to reconnect with the planet. I’m hoping Planet Earth II will tap into a similar Zeitgeist - one that feels in the air right now.

Planet Earth is reckoned to have been seen by half a billion people. Now, thanks to our new co-production partners in China, I’m hoping even more people will watch the new series. I think China is the place in the world where the new series could have the most impact. The opportunity to reach astronomical numbers of people is a great opportunity.

When I was sitting by the pond trying to catch those frogs I never thought for a moment I would be working on something that could have the potential impact of Planet Earth II. Trying to entertain and inform such huge numbers of people is a big challenge, but the prospect doesn’t frighten me – ok, it might be a bit daunting - but it sort of fires me up - it’s definitely exciting.

Mike Gunton is Creative Director, BBC Studios Natural History Unit

Watch Planet Earth II on BBC One at 8pm on Sunday 6 November 2016
Read exclusive interviews with the production team on the BBC Media Centre website
Discover how BBC Outreach gave Bristol media students the opportunity to make their own wildlife documentaries

The new BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden: a space for everyone

2015-06-23T09:35:10+00:00

At the opening of the BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden

Today, Tuesday 23 June, school children from across Bristol will be joined by Miranda Krestovnikoff and Mike Dilger for a 60-minute nature spotting Bioblitz at the new BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden. Here, Jules Hyam, creative producer for BBC West explains how the front of BBC Bristol has been transformed for wildlife.

For 80 years the BBC has had a home in Bristol, on the busy Whiteladies Road. It’s home to Points West, one of the UK’s most popular regional news programmes, and to big TV brands like The One Show, Springwatch and Naomi’s Nightmares of Nature. It’s also the base for the Natural History Unit whose stunning landmark programmes delight audiences around the world.

In the past couple of years, the site has also welcomed productions like Gardeners’ World, The Chelsea Flower Show team and Countryfile.

BBC Bristol is at the heart of the world’s biggest centre of wildlife film and radio production – but in the whole time it’s been here, the image the BBC buildings present to the world has been a rather drab and uninspiring plain lawn.

It seems a little odd that while programme makers inside the buildings spend time people ideas about how to transform their outdoor spaces for the benefit of wildlife – our own outdoor space has almost no wildlife value at all.

I’m by no means the first person who’s thought it could do with a make-over, but sometimes to ‘make things happen’ you need to suggest them at just the right time… and 2015 just happened to be the right time.

This year Bristol is the European Green Capital City and for us that was an ideal opportunity to make a contribution – to work alongside other organisations in the city to create something special… The BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden.

It began almost a year ago with a series of conversations – with television producers, horticultural researchers and crucially Avon Wildlife Trust. As their chief exec and I walked up and down 140 metres of lawn, we began to see that by working together, we could actually make it happen – and in a way that would engage the local community with wildlife, gardening and the natural world and leave a legacy of a valuable habitat that schools could then use as a classroom.

The plan was pretty simple – run a series of “activity days” - each hosted by a famous telly face from BBC Bristol. Invite school children to come along and help them to learn by doing; by planting, digging and watering – by searching for wildlife and helping to create habitats, and slowly a garden would evolve.

But in order to create, we had to first destroy – and there is one Bristol TV show that’s pretty good at doing that… so while council contractors dug up Whiteladies Road to lay new gas mains, DIY SOS parked their van on the BBC driveway and got to work, hacking and chopping and shifting and lifting tons of bricks and bushes - by hand.

For the contractors on the main road – this was hysterical, the TV idols of the construction industry hard at work destroying their own front lawn. After an hour the shrub branches had gone – but the root balls remained, and so did the brickwork. Another hour later and the bricks were starting to disappear – but doing things by hand was taking a while, a fact not lost on the contractors.

After another hour of wry amusement, the contractors’ foreman called an end to his team’s shift and wandered over to talk to the DIY SOS team: “That’s going to take all day you know”, he helpfully pointed out, “I wouldn’t have done that by hand if I were you, would you like me to bring in our digger?”

It’s amazing how many people are keen to help when it’s something they think is worthwhile, without a digger the ground wouldn’t have been ready for children to plant the next day, without University of Bristol volunteers, there wouldn’t have been holes for the apple and pear trees and without Blue Peter re-uniting the “Wild” team of Radzi, Naomi and Tim, there wouldn’t have been a pond.

I could give you lots of facts and figures or explain how we contacted every school in the city – how 15% of them have been involved, how almost 800 children have helped create the space – but they don’t explain as much about the difference the activity days have made as the looks of excitement and enthusiasm on little faces as they find out amazing facts about earthworms, pollinators and plants.

It can take three years to make a landmark natural history series, but it took just one hour - with the enthusiasm of Mike Dilger - to make one group of school children decide to set up their own bug club at their school. After a morning with Nick Baker building bug hotels one college adopted a new conservation policy for its own site, and days led by Miranda Krestovnikoff, Naomi Wilkinson, Tom Hart Dyke and Toby Buckland have inspired schools to reclaim unused land for nature – to do their own wildlife surveys and to make use of the BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden as an outdoor classroom.

Instead of a drab lawn that looks clearly unloved, the people of Bristol have helped to create a space that is very much theirs – and is cared for. A space with different wildlife habitats that’s available as a living outdoor classroom for any school to use.

The BBC Bristol Wildlife Garden is a partnership project with Avon Wildlife Trust and forms part of their My Wild City initiative during Bristol’s Green Capital year.

Jules Hyam is Creative Producer for BBC West

Reviews for Life Story

2014-10-24T12:08:12+00:00

A selection of reviews for last night's episode of Life Story, the first in a new six part documentary from the Natural History Unit, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

The Telegraph: "Life Story (BBC One) is aptly titled, because stories are what it’s full of; it teems, rushes, bubbles with narrative. It doesn’t merely show us animals pottering cutely about their respective habitats; instead it shows them as the heroes, and sometimes villains, of tiny adventures, micro-sagas, mini-epics."

The Mirror: "In every David Attenborough show we are taken on a roller-coaster of emotion, screaming at the TV, holding back tears and whooping for joy...Life Story is no different - well apart from that it is shot in HD for the first time – and by the closing credits I was an emotionally drained wreck."

Independent: "Good luck to you," whispered David Attenborough over the heads of some baby meerkats. It was a sort of naturalist's baptism prayer as they started out on a difficult journey: "Just as each one of our stories is unique to ourselves, so each of these animals will have its own," he explained. Attenborough's paternal concern brought a tear to the eye and that was only five minutes into Life Story."

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Daily Mail: "What fabulous, amazing television. We should count ourselves very lucky to be able to see it."

Jen Macro is Digital Content Producer, About the BBC website and blog.

Life Story continues on Thursdays at 9pm on BBC 1, watch episode 1 - 'First Steps' on BBC iPlayer.
Take a look behind the scenes at 'How we made it: The Making of Life Story' on the programme website.
Take a look at 'The photos of Sir David Attenborough's own life story' on the BBC Newsbeat website.
Read recent About the BBC blogs 'David Attenborough on Life Story and the Licence Fee' and 'BBC announce huge commitment to natural history on TV and online'.
Download the Life Story ebook.
Follow @BBCEarth on twitter.

BBC announce huge commitment to natural history on TV and online

2014-10-16T14:02:26+00:00

“Natural History is in the BBC’s DNA” says BBC Director-General Tony Hall as he welcomes an audience of wildlife enthusiasts to the Radio Theatre in New Broadcasting House today to announce the launch of the UK edition of BBC Earth. The website will provide a digital home for all things BBC Nature, including social media, hosting pictures from the public and a new interactive feature ‘Your Life on Earth’.

The new home of natural history on BBC Online.

The website launch coincided with the premiere screening of episode one of the new series from the Natural History Unit, Life Story, which will be broadcast on BBC One on Thursday 23 October. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist joined Hall in conversation before the screening. The series is shot in ultra high definition and Attenborough imparts, with tongue slightly in cheek, that with all the video technology the public has to hand, that he and his team “has to keep ahead of them”. Life Story definitely stays ahead of the pack, using innovative filming techniques and camera technology to capture an extremely intimate portrait of animals in the wild. A far cry, Sir David goes on to explain, from the early days of wind-up cameras when “you were constantly on edge” waiting to press the record button.

At 88 Attenborough has had a lifetime of experience observing the natural world, but he still discovers new things and is still amazed by animal behaviour, as we can see as he ‘live narrates’ footage of a cuttlefish creating patterns on the seabed. At an age when most would have retired, the veteran broadcaster shows no signs of slowing down, he is involved in three new projects including his major passion of observing birds of paradise, diving to the bottom of the sea in a submarine and joining a dinosaur dig in South America.

When Tony Hall asks him if the upcoming projects feel a bit like ‘schoolboy heaven’, the ever humble Attenborough responds “you know, I can’t believe my luck”. As he leaves the stage to a standing ovation, one can’t help but consider that we, the viewers, are the lucky ones.

Jen Macro is digital content producer on the About the BBC Website and Blog.

The first episode of Life Story will be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday 23 October.
Visit the BBC Earth UK website.
Read a press release detailing new natural history content on BBC television and online on the Media Centre website.
Follow @BBCEarth on twitter.
Watch footage from David Attenborough's early days on BBC iPlayer.