Three spectacular films revealing how documenting the natural world has
changed during the 60 year career of one of the most important naturalists of
the last century, Sir David Attenborough.
Sir David Attenborough has been at the forefront of natural history
film-making for over half a century, witnessing an unparallelled period of
change in our planet's history. In this unique and important series, he
delivers his testimony in a trio of spectacular films, focusing on three areas
which have transformed most profoundly over his career: film-making, science and
the environment. During his extraordinary career he has seen, first-hand, more
of the natural world than anyone else and witnessed how our remarkable planet
has changed more rapidly and extensively than ever before.
In The Trials of Life: Capturing Behaviour, Attenborough turns to his
long-running, landmark Life series to show how remarkable advancements in
wildlife filming techniques have transformed our perception of the animal
kingdom. Aerial filming revealed the unique hunt strategy of hunting dogs,
sped-up time-lapse photography revealed that plants have a life and behaviour of
their own, while endoscope lenses uncovered the secrets of an army ant nest –
walls of interlocked, living ants. Leading developments in film-making,
Attenborough's series regularly revealed animal behaviours that had never
been witnessed before.
Life on Earth –The Secrets of Evolution revisits sequences from his very
earliest broadcasts to his most recent, illustrating how each breakthrough in
biodiversity, genetics and evolutionary biology – his first passion, have
transformed the way we understand the framework of the living world.
The final episode, The Living Planet: Our Fragile World, explores the threats
now facing the natural world. Travelling back to the locations of his early
series, Attenborough demonstrates the degree to which the wild world has shrunk
in only a few decades. But he also reveals how much public attitudes, awareness
and understanding of the natural world has changed over time.
Richly illustrated with the sequences he has spent 60 years capturing and
packed with the personal anecdotes of television's most accomplished raconteur,
this series is a unique synopsis of a unique half-century and a positive
celebration of Attenborough's life's work.
DVD includes Attenborough's Ark