''First Life'' is a 2010 British

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures, usually concentrating on video taken in their natural habitat but also often including footage of tr ...

series written and presented by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...

, also known by the expanded titles ''David Attenborough's First Life'' (UK) and ''First Life with David Attenborough'' (USA). It was first broadcast in the US as a two-hour special on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

on 24 October 2010. In the United Kingdom it was broadcast as a two-part series on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 5 November 2010. ''First Life'' sees Attenborough tackle the subject of the

origin of life In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...

on Earth. He investigates the evidence from the earliest

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s, which suggest that complex animals first appeared in the oceans around 540 million years ago, an event known as the

Cambrian Explosion The Cambrian explosion, Cambrian radiation, Cambrian diversification, or the Biological Big Bang refers to an interval of time approximately in the Cambrian Period when practically all major animal phyla started appearing in the fossil recor ...

. Trace fossils of multicellular organisms from an even earlier period, the

Ediacaran biota The Ediacaran (; formerly Vendian) biota is a Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic period classification that consists of all life forms that were present on Earth during the Ediacaran Period (). These were composed of enigmatic tubular and frond-sh ...

, are also examined. Attenborough travels to

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Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, using some of the latest fossil discoveries and their nearest equivalents amongst living species to reveal what life may have been like at that time. Visual effects and computer animation are used to reconstruct and animate the extinct life forms. '' Attenborough's Journey'', a documentary film profiling the presenter as he journeyed around the globe filming ''First Life'', was shown on BBC Two on 24 October 2010. A hardback book to accompany the series, authored by Matt Kaplan with a foreword by Attenborough, was published in September 2010.

Production

The series was directed by freelance film-maker Martin Williams and series produced by Anthony Geffen, CEO and Executive Producer of

Atlantic Productions Atlantic Productions is a British production company based in London that produces television programmes for broadcasters in Europe and the United States. Overview Founded in 1992, Atlantic Productions leads a group of companies which make telev ...

, with whom Attenborough has collaborated on a number of 3D documentaries for the satellite broadcaster

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

. It was produced in association with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, the Discovery Channel and the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

. During production, it had the working title ''The First Animals''.

Reception

At the

News & Documentary Emmy Award The News & Documentary Emmy Awards, or News & Documentary Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Scien ...

s in 2011, ''First Life'' won in all three categories it was nominated in, for writing, graphic design and art direction and nature programming. The series was nominated for its photography and editing at the BAFTA Craft Awards earlier the same year.

Episodes

''David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates''

In December 2011, a second series of ''First Life'' was announced by media website

Realscreen Brunico Communications is a Canadian magazine publishing company."Desktop tabloid publishing firm sports 2 publications and a profit". ''The Globe and Mail'', October 9, 1989. The company specializes primarily in online trade magazines serving medi ...

. The new series focused on the evolution of the earliest fish, reptiles, amphibians and mammals, and aired on the BBC in 2013, as '' David Attenborough's Rise of Animals: Triumph of the Vertebrates.''

References

External links

Official website
for ''David Attenborough's First Life'' *
''First Life''
on the Eden website *
First Life
' at the BBC Press Office website (see "Nature" panel on right hand side of page) * {{David Attenborough 2010s British documentary television series 2010 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings Documentary television shows about evolution First Life Documentary films about nature Documentary films about prehistoric life Discovery Channel original programming