BBC announce huge commitment to natural history on TV and online

“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 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.