Natural World (known as The Natural World until 2001) was a British nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and BBC Two HD from 1983 to 2020. It was described by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. Each episode took an in-depth look at a particular natural history event, story or subject from around the globe, though occasionally a two- or three-episode miniseries would be shown.
Natural World was produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol under the stewardship of the series editor, who was responsible for commissioning or acquiring content. Approximately half of the programmes were produced in-house, with the remainder made up of collaborative productions with other broadcasters and acquisitions from independent producers. The series had close ties with the US series Nature, broadcast by PBS. Programmes such as these were no accident: The World About Us was described by Barry Paine, a frequent producer and narrator during its first two decades, as "a series designed to sell colour television sets".
Due to the difficulty of sourcing colour films at the time, The World About Us started out with a broad remit of geography, anthropology and natural history as subject matter. Gradually, the contributions from the Travel and Exploration Unit diminished and the Natural History Unit's programmes grew in prominence. This was acknowledged by the BBC when the series was re-launched as The Natural World in 1983; the title subsequently shortened to Natural World in 2001. The first episode under the new title was "Save the Panda", broadcast on 30 October 1983 in what would become a regular time slot on Sunday evenings (where series editor Peter Jones claimed audiences were "hungry for natural history"). At the same time, researchers and field biologists were publishing many new discoveries about wildlife in scientific journals, providing the BBC with plentiful material for new programme ideas. As a result, the strand quickly expanded from 10 to 20 episodes by 1985 and a number of special programmes were commissioned, helped by additional funding from BBC Enterprises (now BBC Worldwide). The final episode, "Super Powered Eagles", aired on 20 March 2020, bringing to an end the longest-running nature documentary series on British television after 37 years and almost 500 episodes.
Format, content and notable episodes
The World About Us helped to popularise the long-form documentary on British television thanks to its generous 50-minute length, a step up from the half-hour programmes which were more common at the time. Filmmakers were able to take advantage of this format to delve into a particular story in more detail, or cover broader themes.. The running time was extended to 60 minutes for later series.
The tone of the strand was set by its first series editor, Peter Jones, who gave his filmmakers the time and budget to explore their subjects in more detail. He also decided to avoid a house style in favour of a flexible approach where the style was chosen to match the subject of the documentary. This freedom from stylistic constraints gave filmmakers autonomy to make the programmes they wanted. As Natural World quickly established itself in the schedules, the series editors were able to take risks with unusual subjects which may otherwise have been avoided by broadcasters. According to Jones, "the idea was to give the audience a surprise each week. It was as far from the contemporary concept of formatted television as you could get." with different approaches to storytelling. Mike Gunton, series editor from 2001 to 2004, introduced more human elements into the programmes, granted filmmakers additional time in the field to get the shots they needed and continued to experiment with style. "Cats Under Serengeti Stars" (2003) was filmed entirely in black and white and "Dune" (2003) was told from the point of view of a grain of sand.
Awards
Natural World programmes were regularly nominated at television industry awards and wildlife film festivals. Notable award-winners from the early years of the series include the 1986 Prix Italia for Vanishing Earth and an Emmy for cinematography for Kingdom of the Ice Bear. The Royal Television Society awarded Natural World the Best Documentary Strand in 1999 and photography prizes to the episodes "Mississippi, Tales of the Last River Rat" in 2005 and "Wye, Voices from the Valley" in 2007. "Mississippi, Tales of the Last River Rat" was also recognised at the Grierson Trust's British Documentary Awards in 2005.
Other award-winning episodes include "A Tiger Called Broken Tail", overall winner at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in 2011 and Missoula's International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF) in 2012; "Madagascar, Lemurs and Spies", a three-time winner at IWFF in 2012; "My Life As A Turkey", recipient of the Golden Panda at the Wildscreen Festival in 2012 and "Kangaroo Dundee", a prize-winner at Jackson Hole and IWFF in 2013.
Series editors
- Peter Jones (1983–1987) (also series editor of The World About Us 1979–1983)
- Andrew Neal (1987–1989)
- Mike Salisbury (1989–1993)
- John Sparks (1993–1997)
- Neil Nightingale (1997–2001)
- Mike Gunton (2001–2004)
- Tim Martin (2004–2011)
- Steve Greenwood (2011–2013)
- Roger Webb (2013–2020)