''Spy in the Wild'' is a 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 ...

television series, produced by

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

, John Downer Productions and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

. The series, which is directed and produced by

John Downer Sir John William Downer, KCMG, KC (6 July 1843 – 2 August 1915) was an Australian politician who served two terms as Premier of South Australia, from 1885 to 1887 and again from 1892 to 1893. He later entered federal politics and served as ...

, premiered in 2017 with a second series in 2020. The employment of

animatronics Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...

makes it possible to document interactive behaviour no animal would have shown towards a human filmmaker or in front of a hidden camera.

Broadcast

The first series ran for five episodes from 12 January 2017 and concluded on 3 February 2017, and aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

. The series focuses on the complex emotions and

ethology Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...

of animals, using more than 30 specially built animatronic "spy creatures", often shaped like the offsprings of the species. The series was narrated by

David Tennant David John Tennant (''né'' McDonald; born 18 April 1971) is a Scottish actor. He rose to fame for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor (2005–2010 and 2013) in the BBC science-fiction TV show '' Doctor Who'', reprising the rol ...

in the original version, while

Brian Unger Brian Douglas Unger (born 1965) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and commentator. Biography Born in Dayton, Ohio to Richard ("Rich") Unger and Eleanor ("Ellie") Oprea, Unger grew up in Granville, Ohio. He graduated from Granvill ...

provides substitute narration in the American PBS version as it was broadcast under ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' Special Presentation series.

Spy creatures

Spy creatures included:

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (2017)

Season 2 (2020)

Reception

Tim Goodman of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' wrote, "Pretty incredible."

Merchandise

DVD and Blu-ray

A two-disc DVD and two-disc Blu-ray set for the series were released on 20 March 2017. Both were distributed by Spirit Entertainment in the UK. In the United States and Canada, the DVDs are divided into two parts and they were released on 28 February and 15 August 2017. Both DVDs were retain with David Tennant's narration from the original British broadcasts.

References

External links

*
Spy in the Wild
at

* {{BBC Natural History Unit 2017 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series 2020s British documentary television series BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries Documentary films about nature English-language television shows