Enlarge image

Sir David Attenborough narrates the eight episodes of »Planet Earth III«

Photo: Ian West / dpa

When the BBC team filmed the series "Planet Earth," which aired in 2006, they attached a camera to a hot air balloon to film the baobab trees of Madagascar from above – which didn't end well, as can still be seen on YouTube. Since then, drones have revolutionized how aerial photography can be filmed. In »Planet Earth III«, the third edition of the BBC nature documentary, light drones provided the perspectives from above.

The anecdote shows how nature filmmakers always explore the limits of what is possible with film technology. For the new episodes, for example, the team developed a special "whale camera", reports the British »Guardian«: a remote-controlled underwater camera that clamped to a whale in Argentina to film from its perspective and then detached again.

In this way, the nature series not only, once again, shows the beauty of our planet. But also how the technology has evolved in the almost two decades since the first series. According to a press release, the BBC team filmed for almost five years, on a total of 1904 shooting days, in 43 countries on six continents, with drones, underwater and high-speed cameras.

A selection of the filming locations is a list of extremes: Among them, for example, the Eurasian steppe, where it can get as cold as minus 30 degrees Celsius. The corrosive waters of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where the team observed a nesting flamingo colony. Or the Vietnamese jungle, where the team filmed underground for 18 days in the Hang son Doong cave – with 500 kilos of equipment.

Series shows a world that is more than ever dominated by humans

Eight episodes were created, which take viewers into the jungle, the desert or the depths of the ocean. "Nature continues to surprise us," says nature filmmaker legend Sir David Attenborough, 97, who recounts the aftermath. "But since Darwin's time, it has changed beyond recognition, shaped by a powerful force - us."

The first series was about taking viewers to the last remaining areas of the wilderness that were still untouched by humanity, says Mike Gunton, the executive producer. "Planet Earth III is about nature's resilience and adaptability. And about the remarkable animals that are changing their lives to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.« A world that is more than ever dominated by humans.

The series will be available to watch on BBC One and in the BBC's media library from next Sunday 22 October. It was co-produced by ZDF, among others. According to ZDF, it will start in Germany on New Year's Day 2024 at 19:30 p.m., an exact start date for the ZDF media library has not yet been set.

lki