Natural World

Flopii

BBC One

Natural World is the longest-running nature documentary series on British television.In commissioning The World About Us, David Attenborough also created the first documentary series whose programmes ran to 50 minutes rather than the half-hour films typical of the time. This allowed the filmmakers to make a more in-depth study of particular places, plants or animals. The format has remained unchanged to the present day.

Although the series is characterised by large budgets and high production values, Natural World programmes rarely fall into the category of blue chip wildlife films . The brief allows for experimentation in terms of presentation style and subject matter. Films with conservation messages and human-animal interaction feature alongside more traditional profiles of individual species and natural habitats. Some of the more unusual subject matter has included plankton, wasps and cephalopods.