Survival is one of television's longest-running and most successful nature documentary series. Originally produced by Anglia Television for ITV in the United Kingdom, it was created by Aubrey Buxton (later Baron Buxton of Alsa), a founder director of Anglia TV, and first broadcast in 1961. Survival films and film-makers won more than 250 awards worldwide, including four Emmy Awards and a BAFTA.
The original series ran for 40 years during which nearly 1,000 shows were produced. It was one of the UK's most lucrative television exports, with sales to 112 countries; the highest overseas sales of any British documentary programme. It became the first British programme sold to China (1979), the first to be broadcast simultaneously across the continent of North America (1987) and its camera teams were the first to shoot a major wildlife series in the former Soviet Union (1989–91). It gained a Queen's Awards for Export Achievement in 1974.
Early programmes were all half-hours, but the one-hour Survival Special became ITV's flagship wildlife documentary for three decades, often attracting audiences of more than 10 million. Series were also made for Channel 4, for CITV and for regional transmission. Survival achieved great popularity in the US, where a syndicated half-hour series, The World of Survival (narrated by John Forsythe), ran for 12 years, and numerous one-hour films were aired by broadcasters including NBC, CBS and PBS.
The production unit was disbanded in 2001 and the title disappeared from British TV screens. However, the Survival name returned to ITV with the launch of Survival with Ray Mears in 2010. The Survival name was then subsequently used again with a series entitled Survival - Tales from the Wild.
Structure
For many years Survival was made by a subsidiary of Anglia Television, Survival Anglia Ltd (SAL), operating from the company's London offices at Brook House in Park Lane. In 1989, the unit moved to premises in Queen Street, Norwich, close to Anglia TV's headquarters.
Following the 1994 acquisition of Anglia by finance and media company MAI (now United Business Media), and the subsequent formation of United Broadcasting & Entertainment, Survival became part of United Wildlife (1996), linked with Partridge Productions, the Bristol based production company, but continuing to operate from the Norwich base until 2001.
Survival productions were the result of many months, even years, of work in the field. A camera team would typically follow a subject's story "from womb to tomb" to produce a one-hour Special, plus one or more related half-hours. Surplus footage and out-takes were held in a film library, that grew to more than 11 million feet of film and was made commercially available worldwide. SAL also operated one of the UK's biggest wildlife stills libraries, cataloguing and selling images provided by the camera teams.
Many of the world's leading wildlife photographers worked for Survival, including Alan Root working with his wife Joan Root, Des Bartlett and his wife Jen Bartlett, Dieter Plage, Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, Nick Gordon, Richard and Julia Kemp, Simon Trevor, Doug Allan, Joel Bennett, Liz and Tony Bomford, Cindy Buxton, Bob Campbell, Ashish Chandola, Bruce Davidson, Jeff Foott, Richard Matthews, Hugh Miles, Michael Pitts, Maurice Tibbles and Barbara Tyack.
Commentary for Survival shows was voiced by many leading actors over the years, including Orson Welles, Henry Fonda, David Niven, Anthony Hopkins, John Forsythe, Stefanie Powers, Gene Kelly, Timothy Dalton, Jason Robards, Peter Ustinov and Richard Widmark.
For UK transmissions, the celebrity narrators also included Sean Bean, Richard Briers, Rory Bremner, Ian Holm, Andrew Sachs, Brian Cox, Rolf Harris, Dennis Waterman, Rula Lenska, Toyah Willcox, Robert Powell, Tony Robinson, Diana Rigg and Gaby Roslin, along with naturalists Sir Peter Scott and David Bellamy.
Prince Philip introduced or narrated three Survival films in the 1960s through his association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Despite the star names associated with Survival, almost all narrators were heard but not seen. When Survival began to achieve success overseas, it was decided to facilitate the programmes' export potential by not having a presenter or narrator in vision. This ensured the commentary could be re-recorded in another language, as required. With a few exceptions, this remained the policy throughout.