After becoming a mainstay on TV screens due to spending more than seven decades producing fascinating nature documentaries, David Attenborough's next series about British natural history will likely be his last in which he will appear filmed on location, The Observer reports. The five-part series, titled Wild Isles, is set to begin next Sunday (March 12).
The new show will be Attenborough's first to feature him on camera on location since Green Planet, which was filmed more than four years ago. Despite his spokesperson saying he will continue making documentaries, his international travels are reported to have stopped.
Producers said he agreed to be the narrator for Wild Isles at first, before he agreed to present it. Series producer Alastair Fothergill, who has worked with Attenborough for over 35 years, told The Observer: "We felt he had a unique perspective because of his age, on how the British countryside has changed in his lifetime.
“He introduces every episode and closes the opening and last episode with very powerful pieces about the fact that, as this is our home, it is our responsibility to try to restore nature.”
Fothergill added that David was specifically fond of his visits to the island of Skomer off the west coast of Wales last summer. While there, he first filmed with puffins, before also seeing Manx shearwater chicks leave their nest. Fothergill said: "There are around 67 steep steps from where you get off the boat to when you reach the first path at the top of the island.
"For all of us, especially with all our very heavy camera kit, those steps were something of a challenge. But David managed them amazingly despite his 96 years.”
The new series employs the use of drones and slow-motion cameras to capture footage of a gannet colony at Bass Rock in Scotland as they came in off the sea to feed. The team also utilised an electric filming buggy with a gyro stabilised camera to film red deer and fallow deer rut.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
