''Nature's Great Events'' is a
wildlife documentary series made for
BBC television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...
, first shown in the UK on
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...
and
BBC HD
BBC HD was a high-definition television channel owned by the BBC. The channel was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 25 March 2013. It broadcast only during ...
in February 2009. The series looks at how seasonal changes powered by the sun cause shifting weather patterns and ocean currents, which in turn create the conditions for some of the planet's most spectacular wildlife events. Each episode focuses on the challenges and opportunities these changes present to a few key species.
''Nature's Great Events'' was produced by the
BBC Natural History Unit with 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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience.
It init ...
and in association with Wanda Films. The British version of the series was narrated by
David Attenborough. In United States, the series was shown under the alternative title ''Nature's Most Amazing Events'' beginning on 29 May 2009
and was narrated by
Hasani Issa. In Australia, this program aired on
ABC1
ABC TV, formerly known as ABC1, is an Australian national public television network. It is owned and operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is the flagship (broadcasting), flagship ABC Television (Australian TV network), A ...
each Sunday at 7:30pm from 14 June until 19 July 2009.
The title ''Nature's Great Events'' was previously used by
Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
for an unrelated
VHS series released in 1996.
Production
Production team
The series was first unveiled as a co-production deal with independent Wanda Films, under the working title of ''Earth's Great Events''. The title was subsequently revised and the Discovery Channel revealed as additional co-producers. The Natural History Unit's production team includes series producer Karen Bass and executive producer Brian Leith. The score was composed by Barnaby Taylor and Ben Salisbury, orchestrated and conducted by
William Goodchild and performed by the
BBC Concert Orchestra. Views of the earth from space, that illustrate the climatic events around the world, were created by design compan
Burrell Durrant Hifleincorporating
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
photography.
Filming
Filming took place over a 25-month period, an unusually tight timescale for a natural history production of this scale. In some cases, the events were not guaranteed to occur every year, so working to such a rapid schedule meant that the film crews ran the risk of having nothing to film. Producer Karen Bass described the series as "a minor miracle, given the constraints of luck and timing - we were totally dependent on events happening when they were supposed to." One of the most challenging sequences to film was the climax of "The Great Tide" episode, featuring aerial and underwater footage of dolphins, sharks and gannets attacking a sardine shoal. In 2007, the sardine run didn't take place, and after weeks of fruitless searching, the crew had to give up. The following year, there was a second and final opportunity. Just in case they were unsuccessful again, the producers devised an alternative sixth episode which would have explored the science behind seasonal changes, looking at how the "Great Events" are triggered and how
environmental change
Environment most often refers to:
__NOTOC__
* Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
may be affecting them. As luck would have it, the sardine run returned for the first time in three years and the team captured the shots they needed.
Television firsts
The
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
claimed a number of TV firsts achieved by the production team. Many of the filming techniques first used on ''
Planet Earth'', such as the
gyroscopically-stabilised helicopter camera known as the Heligimbal, were adopted again, along with new technology. In "The Great Tide", some of the surface-water footage was shot from a boat-mounted stabilised camera, previously used in the
Hollywood film industry. Innovations on "The Great Flood" included FrankenCam, a motion-control macro camera developed b
Ammonite Filmsand capable of shooting extreme close-ups of tiny subjects. The team were also the first to film narwhals from the air and the first to reveal how grizzly bears use their feet to scoop up dead salmon from deep pools. The crew of "The Great Migration" had the good fortune of witnessing the first eruption of a
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...
n volcano in 40 years, and managed to shoot aerial footage of the event.
Episodes
Reception
The series drew an average of 4.0 million viewers and a 16.9% audience share, down on BBC One's average share of 24% for the same time slot in 2008. However, the Sunday evening repeats at a more family-friendly viewing time drew similar viewing figures to the first broadcast, and the episodes regularly featured in the top ten weekly chart on
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...
.
The series received almost universal praise in the British press. Writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' of the scene in which a humpback whale swallows a shoal of herring, Lucy Mangan commented: "You can cradle your jaw safely in your lap for the rest of the evening, as you replay that moment in your mind's eye and reel at the slower but no less staggering evocation by the entire programme, the entire series, of the incredible force and fragility of it all." The sequence was also singled out by Tim Teeman in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', who wrote "now that was a money shot. ''Nature's Great Events'': "The Great Feast" was no mis-sale". He went on to describe it as "the most surprising bit of television this week" and "the most mind-blowing, horrific and beautiful sequence of film". The series also gained a very favourable review in ''
The Scotsman
''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...
''. Its critic Paul Whitelaw described it as "quite simply wonderful television. Visually stunning, immersive and mesmerising, it examined some of the most dramatic wildlife spectacles on Earth with characteristic verve and insight." He singled out praise for David Attenborough, noting that "even when he is merely narrating,
eis quite brilliant at what he does, and I defy anyone to refute that."
Matt Warman of ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' was complimentary about the "wealth of surprising, beautiful images", but criticised the series for its superficial treatment of environmental issues. Writing about the plight of polar bears highlighted in "The Great Melt", he commented "it was tempting to ask whether the rise of one species, man, and the decline of another could not be considered a sad part of evolution by natural selection... ''Nature's Great Events'', however, chose not to engage with the debate."
Merchandise
DVD and Blu-ray
In United Kingdom,
DVD has been released on 16 March 2009 (BBCDVD2863), while Blu-ray Disc was later released on 15 June 2009 by
2 Entertain. Both DVD and Blu-ray includes with ten-minute feature called "Nature's Great Events Diaries" which details the filming of a particular event after each episode.
In United States and Canada, both DVD and
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
was released under the title "Nature's Most Amazing Events" on 2 June 2009 by
BBC Warner.
In Australia and New Zealand, DVD and Blu-ray was also released by ABC DVD/
Village Roadshow on 6 August 2009.
In Japan, both DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on 4 June 2010, and it was distributed by
Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan
, abbreviated SPE or SPEJ, is a Japanese film studio, based in Minato, Tokyo, Minato-ku, Tokyo. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, with the majority of SPEJ's shares held by Sony Pictures Entertainmen ...
. However, it does not included Nature's Great Events Diaries like any other regions.
Books
In United Kingdom, an accompanying hardback book has been published by Mitchell Beazley on 2 February 2009. Called ''Nature's Great Events: The Most Spectacular Natural Events on the Planet'', it is authored by the BBC Natural History Unit, edited by Karen Bass and has an introduction by Brian Leith. ()
The companion volume for the US market, ''Nature's Great Events: The Most Amazing Natural Events on the Planet'', was published by the
University of Chicago Press
The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...
on 15 May 2009. ()
Soundtrack
The musical score and songs featured in the series were composed by
Ben Salisbury and
Barnaby Taylor with the performed by the
BBC Concert Orchestra, and has been performed during "''Nature's Great Events Live''" as part of an event for the re-opening of
Bristol
Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
's
Colston Hall in the UK. The soundtrack was only available for digital release at
iTunes Store on 9 September 2009.
References
https://web.archive.org/web/20170321105247/http://www.gosainpost.com/category/universe/
http://www.gosainpost.com/out-of-the-shadows-the-wildcats-youve-never-see/
http://www.gosainpost.com/category/animals/
http://www.gosainpost.com/bengal-tiger-panthera-tigris-tigris/
External links
*
*
*
Nature's Great Events' at
Hulu
Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...
*
Nature's Great Events' at
Hulu
Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...
Japan
*
Nature's Great Events' on the
Eden
*
Nature's Most Amazing Events' at
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 that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience.
It init ...
UK publisher's webpage for ''Nature's Great Events'' bookUS publisher's webpage for ''Nature's Great Events: The Most Amazing Natural Events on the Planet''
{{David Attenborough
BBC television documentaries
BBC high definition shows
Documentary films about nature
2009 British television series debuts
2009 British television series endings
Discovery Channel original programming