ideas about science and the cosmos
BBC – The Living Planet
The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the UK from 19 January 1984.
The sequel to his pioneering Life on Earth, it is a study of the ways in which living organisms, including humans, adapt to their surroundings. Each of the twelve 55-minute episodes (one fewer than his previous series) featured a different environment.
Background
The programs were just as ambitious to produce as those in the previous series, each featuring a variety of locations from around the world.
Among the most difficult places, in terms of logistics, was the Sudan, where the crew had to be flown in — despite there being no runways or indeed roads. Conversely, areas such as the Himalayas permitted no transportation at all, so the only option was to walk. In South America, a shortage of boats led to one cameraman having to push his equipment in a rubber dinghy, while he himself swam behind it.
Some subjects proved even more challenging: the production team had to wait two years for news to arrive of an erupting volcano, and had to suspend all other filming in the hope that it would still be alight when they reached it. Elsewhere, cameraman Hugh Miles had to put himself 25 yards (23 m) away from a polar bear in order to film it in close-up.
For the episode “The Sky Above”, the series’ makers managed to secure the services of NASA, and the use of its gravity research aircraft, affectionately known as the Vomit Comet.
However, the most time-consuming sequence involved red-breasted geese in flight — not in terms of actual filming, but in preparing for it. The birds had to be reared by hand from birth so that they would respond to the voice of their ‘mother’, and this eventually enabled them to be photographed as they flew alongside a moving open-top car.
Filming techniques continued to evolve. One new piece of equipment used was a scuba diving suit with a large, fully-enclosed faceplate, allowing Attenborough to speak (and be seen) underwater.
In an interview on the making of the series, Attenborough was self-effacing concerning his own contribution:
“The difficulties are not actually experienced by me, because the bits that I do are the easiest bits. [...] It’s not too difficult to walk on to a rock and look at a camera and say something. The difficulties are those that are encountered by the cameramen, directors and recordists, who actually have to get an animal doing something which perhaps nobody’s ever even seen before. Those are extremely difficult things to do.”