With the long-awaited third instalment of the BBC’s Planet Earth airing this autumn, the series producers share their insights, highlights and behind-the-scenes secrets
By MATT BRANDON AND MIKE GUNTON
Mike was already thinking about Planet Earth III when the previous series aired back in 2016. I suppose we all were, but it takes time to develop and research a landmark on this scale – especially since we set ourselves the task of raising an already very high bar.
Our incredibly talented and hardworking team have certainly achieved that. Across the series we’ve filmed in new, previously unseen locations telling stories that are dramatic, thrilling, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, but always full of hope.
And Planet Earth wouldn’t be Planet Earth without David Attenborough, and I am delighted he is presenting the third series. As ever, he has brought his huge enthusiasm and wisdom and has been encouraging about our new perspective. I know he has really enjoyed seeing the extraordinary new wonders brought to the screen. (Mike) For the opening scene, David was filmed in the beautiful Kent countryside, exactly where Charles Darwin used to walk while thinking over his earth-shaking ideas about evolution. It seemed the perfect place for him to introduce Planet Earth III and remind us of the wonders and fragility of Earth.
Planet Earth III is truly global in appeal and content. Across eight episodes we showcase an array of habitats, exploring all corners of our amazing planet. We have filmed at the world’s extremes, everywhere from forests to freshwater to mountains and seas, so we can tell important, global stories from a big-picture perspective.
The natural world has changed more over the past few decades than ever before, and since making the very first series of Planet Earth almost 20 years ago, we have begun to better understand the fragility of our home. We’ve now reached a critical point in our planet’s history that demands that this third chapter features stories and animal characters that reflect the new challenges of life in our modern, crowded world.
Perhaps one of the most enduring images of the series is in the Human episode, in which a rhino strides down a busy street in Nepal. In Ocean, we see how South American sealions in their thousands are changing their hunting behaviour to compete with fishing fleets for anchovy. The sealions have
