In 2007, the Unit celebrated its 50th anniversary and was rewarded with a special award at the International Broadcasting Convention in recognition of its unique contribution to wildlife film and documentary making.^[3]

On television, the anniversary was marked with the broadcast of Saving Planet Earth, a conservation-themed series which helped to raise over £1.5 million for the BBC Wildlife Fund.^[4]

In October 2007, the BBC announced that the NHU would suffer cuts of a third in both staff numbers and its £37 million annual budget, as a result of the Government’s decision to impose a below-inflation increase in the television licence fee. The cutbacks were widely condemned by industry and media figures and by programme-makers including David Attenborough.^[5][6]

In response to the criticism, Keith Scholey, Factual Controller of BBC Vision, promised that the BBC would "continue to make and show the ambitious, large-scale, truly memorable series that audiences associate with BBC natural history output".^[7] Titles affected by the cuts include the BBC Two Wild strand, adventure-style series such as Amazon Abyss (2005) and Incredible Animal Journeys (2006) and the long-running Big Cat Diary (1996-2008), which is only likely to return for one-off special editions.^[8][9]

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Filmography

Main article: NHU Filmography

[

In production

As well as returning series such as Natural World and Springwatch and natural history content for BBC One's The One Show, the Unit has a number of major commissions currently in production:

• Pacific Abyss is the third in the Abyss series of diving documentaries. It was originally due to be broadcast in 2007 but has now been put back to 2008.

• A brace of three-part, high-definition series in the Expedition strand have been commissioned for BBC One. Expedition Guyana follows a team of scientists and biologists deep into the South American rainforest on a month-long expedition filmed in September 2007 for broadcast in summer 2008. The challenges of Expedition New Guinea include filming birds of paradise displays, exploring new cave systems and encountering remote tribes. ^[10]

• LIFE is one of several high-profile commissions to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in 2009. The Natural History Unit will contribute a 10-part series for BBC One in which David Attenborough will tell the story of evolution, the first time he has tackled the subject since his seminal 1979 documentary Life on Earth. The series will be filmed in high-definition. Oher series marking the occasion will include The Human Race and The Human Planet, both airing on BBC Two and expected to feature content by the NHU. The former is a study of hisory of mankind and the latter a celebration of our anthropological diversity, spearheaded by Bob Geldof.^[11]

• The Frozen Planet is a second new collaboration with David Attenborough. Six episodes filmed in high-definition will present the most comprehensive study of life in the polar regions ever filmed. Billed as the follow-up to Planet Earth ^[12], filming began in late 2006 with a shoot on South Georgia, enlisting the help of Royal Navy helicopters for aerial footage.

• Nature's Great Events will be an in-depth portrait of six natural phenomena from around the globe, including the Alaskan salmon run and the greening of the Okavango Delta.^[13] It is expected to air in 2009 and is the first BBC co-production with Spain's Wanda Films.^[14]

• Yellowstone, a profile of the USA's famous National Park for BBC Two which will adopt the recent format of a three-part series on locations rich in wildlife (Galápagos, Ganges).^[15]

• South Pacific, a six-part series for BBC Two, for which filming began in April 2007 and is expected to continue until late 2009.^[16]

• The Meerkats is a feature film co-produced by BBC Films and The Weinstein Company and will aim to build on the popularity of Meerkat Manor.^[17]

• In an interview with The Daily Telegraph to promote Earth, senior NHU producer Alastair Fothergill announced he was working on a feature-length documentary on chimpanzees. It will take five years to film.^[18]

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Awards and recognition

The Natural History Unit as a whole was awarded the Gold Medal at the 2001 Royal Television Society awards for its "outstanding contribution over the past 44 years to broadcasting about the natural world". It was praised for being a "a national resource for people's understanding and love of wildlife on our planet, and a symbol of both quality and talent in public service broadcasting"^[19].

NHU filmmakers are regularly nominated and rewarded at film festivals such as Wildscreen, the Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival and the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and their output has been recognised by the wider broadcasting industry too, winning several Emmys and BAFTAs and the coveted Prix Italia on three occasions. Further details are provided in the relevant articles for specific series.

Recognition has also come in the form of high audience viewing figures and audience approval ratings, particularly for 'blue-chip' series such as Planet Earth. When first screened in the UK it was watched by more than 8 million people^[20]. In 2008, episodes of Life in Cold Blood and the Wildlife Special miniseries Tiger: Spy in the Jungle both reportedly achieved the highest-ever audience appreciation index (AI) rating for a factual programme^[21].

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Heads of the NHU

• Nicholas Crocker (1957 - 1959)
• Bruce Campbell (1959 - 1962)
• Nicholas Crocker (1962 - 1973)
• Mick Rhodes (1973 - 1979)
• Christopher Parsons (1979 - 1983)
• John Sparks (1983 - 1988)
• Andrew Neil (1988 - 1992)
• Alastair Fothergill (1992 - 1998)
• Keith Scholey (1998 - 2003)
• Neil Nightingale (2003 - present)

[

References

General references

Information in the History section is largely drawn from the following sources:

• Parsons, C. (1982) True to Nature: Christopher Parsons looks back on 25 years of wildlife filming with the BBC Natural History Unit. Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 0-85059-530-4
• Attenborough, D. (2002) Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster. BBC Books. ISBN 0-56348-780-1

The list of Heads of the Natural History Unit is taken from the following source:

• BBC/2entertain Great Wildlife Moments DVD (2003). Bonus feature: Heads of the BBC Natural History Unit

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External links

• BBC Science and Nature at bbc.co.uk
• BBC Factual Programmes unoffical site
• Wild Film History

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