Mike Gunton’s Diary
Over 3000 filming days around the globe,
130 of the most extraordinary animal survival
stories – 54 of which have never been filmed in
this way before – Life is a series of unimaginable
scale. So, four years ago, at the start of the
project, how daunted did the producers feel?
Throughout the production process, executive
producer Mike Gunton kept us in the loop with
regular updates from the front line of production.
From the awesome spectacle of humpback
whales courting, to the slightly more banal
reality of filming while waist-deep in mud –
this is the true story of Life.
February 2007
The definitive exploration of the diversity of living things. Hmm. It’s hard to imagine a bigger subject to cover in a wildlife series than that – after all, there are something like one and a half million known species on the planet. Doing them justice is going to be a tall order. For a start, how do you pick the best – the most spectacular behaviour, the most fascinating stories – the most surprising, most awe-inspiring images?
Well, that’s what the Life team has spent the last year grappling with; finding the top 150 behaviour stories of animals and plants battling to survive – and a star cast of great characters in the process.
It has been remarkable. Just when you think you know what animals do, you find them up to something utterly extraordinary: a pod of killer whales combining forces to roll a seal off a slab of floating ice into another’s jaws; new discoveries of ‘giant’ chimps that use tools in a completely novel way; 'superbrat' baby coatis that beat up their elders in a fight for food; a giant octopus mother that lays down its life for her brood of hundreds of perfectly formed babies; even a mountain plant with so many flowers (20,000 to be precise) that they form a spike which towers 30 feet high, and it only blooms once a century!