To make sense of all this wonder, Life needs to be big in scope. There are ten episodes, one dedicated to each of the major wildlife groups: mammals, primates, birds, insects and so on. Filmed on every continent and in every type of habitat across the world, the series will have epic style and breadth, making it definitive, and uniquely satisfying in a way that hasn’t been attempted since Life on Earth a generation ago. But Life is also about entertainment. Alongside the revelatory quality, sense of place and cinematic style inspired by Planet Earth and Galápagos, there will be new up-close, intensely dramatic behaviour that will captivate and emotionally involve the audience.
To achieve all this Life has a fantastically talented team of producers. Martha Holmes has unparalleled experience of the poles and the oceans gained from Life in the Freezer and Blue Planet. Adam Chapman knows as much about the African plains and its big cats as anyone in the Natural History Unit. Neil Lucas is the master of time-lapse photography, Patrick Morris is fresh from Galápagos, Rupert Barrington has a track record of delivering astonishing images of insect behaviour going back to Alien Empire and Ted Oakes was the creative brain behind the breakthrough series Amazon Abyss.
As the viewer witnesses animals doing everything they can to survive against the elements, predators and even their own kind, they take a roller coaster ride through a world of extreme animal behaviour. With the extraordinary intensity of experience that the best HD photography brings, I’m more excited than I’ve ever been about any series I’ve worked on. This is Life… as you’ve never seen it before.
February 2008
This is the big filming year for Life. It has already started in earnest; my first day back in the new year had me clambering over mountains of gear to get to my office: 1.5 tons of cameras, cranes, clothes, lights, tents and goodness knows what else all ready for immediate despatch to the frozen south, kindly being couriered there by the Royal Air Force.
This was the first phase in our very own ‘Operation Life in the Freezer’, a two-month expedition to Antarctica, with four separate crews filming on land, sea and in the air. As I write, the last of those crews is about to board an RAF DC10 heading for the Falklands, where they will join the Royal Navy’s Class One icebreaker and Antarctic Patrol Ship, HMS Endurance.