Specials

E1. On the 8th Day

Sep 24, 1984 · 60m

The effect on the natural world of a nuclear war, reporting on reseacrh in America, Russia and Britain which suggests that for thirty years the world has had the capacity to cause `a nuclear winter'. A Natural World special transmitted in 1984.

E2. Vanishing Earth - Soil

Aug 4, 1986 · 60m

Filmed in Nepal, Ethiopia and China investigates how the misuse of land and not drought lies at the root of famines in Ethiopia and elsewhere. The programme reveals how government policy and international trade conspire to cause starvation.

E3. Vanishing Earth - Water

Aug 5, 1986 · 60m

Burkino Faso, the edge of the Sahel in west Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has been gripped by drought since 1968, yet simple techniques are helping to conserve their rainfall. In the western USA, massive and expensive irrigation schemes are bringing a harvest of subsidised yet unsaleable crops.

E4. Animals: The Inside Story - Fight For Life

Jan 1, 2002 · 60m

In this fascinating new three-part documentary, viewers can look inside animals to see what makes them tick. Fusing exciting computer animation, thermal imaging and compelling science, Animals: The Inside Story puts creatures under the microscope to expose the hidden mechanisms that drive their actions. The first episode, Fight For Life, reveals the true cost of staying alive as hunter or hunted. How do predators set up an attack and how do their prey take evasive action? Look inside a tiger's brain as the hungry predator spies a deer and is triggered into action. A peregrine falcon mounts a 200-mile-an-hour attack on a pigeon, relying on aerodynamics and an ingenious nasal system to make its breathtaking approach. Go inside the mouth of the largest animal in the world, the blue whale, to see how they eat one of the smallest creatures of the sea.

E5. Animals: The Inside Story - New Lives

Jan 1, 2002 · 60m

In this fascinating new three-part documentary, viewers can look inside animals to see what makes them tick. Fusing exciting computer animation, thermal imaging and compelling science, Animals: The Inside Story puts creatures under the microscope to expose the hidden mechanisms that drive their actions. Part 2, New Lives, unravels the mysteries of animal reproduction from courtship and mating through to the creation of new life. The virtual world of the elephant womb allows us to see a baby elephant develop over 22 months. Emperor penguins produce eggs in the harshest climate on earth. Go inside this life support capsule and see how the shell is made and the chick grows. Metamorphosis is one of nature's miracles. From the inside, watch a total transformation as a land-based caterpillar becomes a graceful aerial athlete.

E6. Animals: The Inside Story - Extreme Lives

Jan 1, 2002 · 60m

Extreme Lives, the final episode of Animals: The Inside Story, explores the limits of animal endurance. A polar bear uses its thick fur coat to turn light into heat and survive the Arctic cold. Hibernation is one way to endure winter but the rare Vancouver Island Marmot is on a knife-edge between life and death. Wood frogs enter a state of suspended animation, freezing 65% of their bodies to stay alive. The camel survives extremes of desert heat with amazing blood cells and a nose designed to conserve every drop of moisture.

E7. Symphony

Jan 1, 2005 · 60m

E8. Echo of the Elephants: Africa's Forgotten Elephants

Apr 6, 1997 · 60m

E9. 100 Years of Wildlife Films - Cinema

Aug 25, 2007 · 60m

This new two-hour documentary is the centrepiece in a dazzling wildlife season on BBC Four. Bill Oddie highlights the passionate, eccentric and pioneering individuals who have often risked life and limb to break new boundaries in wildlife films. He charts the extraordinary changes in technology that have driven the industry forward, and reveals how the last hundred years of wildlife films has as much to do with our social attitudes as it has to do with the animals themselves. With stunning, exciting and sometimes shocking footage, the documentary explores the changing trends throughout the last century, from shooting animals for fun in the 1930s to campaigning to save them from extinction today. This first part focuses on techniques and on the early works of film makers, up to about 1940, when television just became available, but was put on hold because of the war.

E10. 100 Years of Wildlife Films - Television

60m

This new two-hour documentary is the centrepiece in a dazzling wildlife season on BBC Four. Bill Oddie highlights the passionate, eccentric and pioneering individuals who have often risked life and limb to break new boundaries in wildlife films. He charts the extraordinary changes in technology that have driven the industry forward, and reveals how the last hundred years of wildlife films has as much to do with our social attitudes as it has to do with the animals themselves. With stunning, exciting and sometimes shocking footage, the documentary explores the changing trends throughout the last century, from shooting animals for fun in the 1930s to campaigning to save them from extinction today. The second part moves into television, and touches on changing attitudes towards what is shown in UK and USA, like sex and violence, the killshot.

E11. Making of Empire of the Ants

60m

E12. Queen of the Savannah

Mar 29, 2012 · 45m