Animal Park (TV series)
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''Animal Park'' is a
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television documentary series about the lives of keepers and animals at
Longleat Safari and Adventure Park Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Wiltshire, England, was opened in 1966 as the world's first drive-through safari park outside Africa. History The park is situated in the grounds of Longleat House, an English stately home which is open t ...
,
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, England. The show is presented by Kate Humble, Ben Fogle and
Megan McCubbin Megan McCubbin (born 1995) is an English zoologist, conservationist, photographer and television presenter. Biography McCubbin has dyslexia and took Environmental Studies at A-Level. A foundation year in Biological Science led her to study Z ...
, with appearances by members of Longleat staff and the landowners, the Thynn family. As of August 2022, there have been 18 series of the programme as well as three special series, usually shown during school holidays and broadcast on weekdays in the daytime as daily episodes.


Content

Programmes show the animals, keepers, and day-to-day running of the safari park. Some of the animals captured the hearts of the viewing public, including the tiger 'Kadu', rhinos 'Babs' and 'Winston', and Europe's oldest male silverback gorilla, 'Nico'. Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, owner of the Longleat estate until his death on 4 April 2020, appeared regularly in the show. ''Animal Park'' also documents the running of
Longleat House Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire, ...
and the ongoing preservation of its historic contents.


History


Predecessors

''The Lions of Longleat'' is a 1967
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 ...
documentary about the newly opened safari park with commentary by Lord Bath and Jimmy Chipperfield. Another series, ''Lion Country'', aired between 1998 and 1999 with a total of 55 episodes.


Original series

The first series of ''Animal Park'', originally broadcast in 2000 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 ...
, was presented by Kate Humble and Paul Heiney. In series two, Heiney was replaced by Ben Fogle. Altogether, there were nine series and 150 episodes of ''Animal Park'', with the last episode originally airing on 25 March 2009.


Spin-offs

There have been two spin-offs from the main series. ''Animal Park: Wild in Africa'' was originally broadcast in 2005 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 ...
. Set in Namibia, it documented the work of wildlife conservationists. Another spin-off, ''Animal Park: Wild on the West Coast'', had a similar format in California, and was originally broadcast in 2007 on BBC Two.


2016 revival

In 2016, 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 ...
announced that ''Animal Park'' would return for a tenth series to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Longleat Safari Park. This series aired for five episodes in August 2016 in a daytime slot. The show was renamed ''Animal Park: Summer Special'' and was presented by Kate Humble and Ben Fogle, with
Jean Johansson Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...
as a reporter. An eleventh series was broadcast in 2017. Five episodes aired during Easter, with a further ten airing during the summer. ''Animal Park: Summer Special'', series twelve, was aired in August 2018. Episode 3 celebrated the life of the gorilla 'Nico', who died in January 2018 at the age of 56. Episode 7 featured wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, who used his remote-control BeetleCam to take a series of close-up photographs of the animals. Humble and Fogle continued as presenters for the 2019 and 2020 series. Series fourteen, episode 4 (first aired in August 2020) celebrated the life of the former owner of the Longleat estate, Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, who died in April 2020. His son Ceawlin Thynn, 8th Marquess and his wife
Emma Emma may refer to: * Emma (given name) Film * Emma (1932 film), ''Emma'' (1932 film), a comedy-drama film by Clarence Brown * Emma (1996 theatrical film), ''Emma'' (1996 theatrical film), a film starring Gwyneth Paltrow * Emma (1996 TV film), '' ...
have since appeared on several episodes. Series fifteen, aired in December 2020, had a Christmas theme. In 2021, wildlife cameraman
Hamza Yassin Hamza Ahmed Yassin (born 22 February 1990) is a Sudanese-British wildlife cameraman and presenter, known for his role as Ranger Hamza on the children's television channel CBeebies and his work on shows such as ''Countryfile'' and ''Animal Park' ...
joined the presenting team. Series seventeen aired in August 2022, with
Megan McCubbin Megan McCubbin (born 1995) is an English zoologist, conservationist, photographer and television presenter. Biography McCubbin has dyslexia and took Environmental Studies at A-Level. A foundation year in Biological Science led her to study Z ...
replacing Johansson.


Transmissions


Main series

Some episodes from series six and eight have been re-edited into 15, 25, 30 and 45 minute programmes to be repeated and used as schedule fillers.


''Animal Park: Wild in Africa''


''Animal Park: Wild on the West Coast''


References


External links

*{{BBC programme
''Animal Park''
at the Internet Movie Database
Longleat Safari Park's official website
(archived in 2009) BBC television documentaries 2000 British television series debuts 2000s British documentary television series 2010s British documentary television series 2020s British documentary television series Films set in zoos British television series revived after cancellation British English-language television shows Television shows set in Wiltshire