The Green Planet is a 2022 nature documentary series on plants and their relationship with animals, humans and the environment. It was produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and narrated and presented by David Attenborough.
Utilising time-lapse photography, drones and specially designed camera rigs called "Triffids", the series aimed to show plant movements over prolonged periods, but sped up into real time. The series first aired on BBC One on 9 January 2022, and consisted of 5 episodes. It was subsequently made available on demand on BBC iPlayer and was aired internationally on other networks.
Filming took three years to complete, and took place in 27 countries. Producer Paul Williams hired engineer Chris Field to develop new filmmaking technology for the series based on a prototype of the "Triffid" camera system in a Kickstarter video. Original music was composed by Benji Merrison and Will Slater. A tie-in augmented reality experience in London and an online content initiative were launched to promote the series.
The Green Planet was a ratings success in the United Kingdom, with its first episode drawing 5.4 million viewers. It also received positive reviews from critics, who noted its production quality, storytelling, and environmentalist themes.
Episodes
The series consists of five episodes, each based on a different theme and environment. Each episode ends with a segment on the methods and equipment used to capture the episode.
Production
In January, the upcoming release of The Green Planet, a five-part documentary about the biodiversity of plant life narrated by David Attenborough was announced. The series was a collaboration between PBS and BBC Studios Natural History Unit. It was co-produced by Open University, CCTV-9, Bilibili, ZDF, France Télévisions and NHK. The series was considered to be a "passion project" for Attenborough. In an interview with The Irish News, Attenborough said that "The world is green – it's an apt name [for the series], the world is green. And yet people's understanding about plants, except in a very kind of narrow way, has not kept up with that. I think this will bring it home."
Filming began in early 2019 and took over three years to complete. Filming took place in 27 countries, including Japan, Croatia, Costa Rica, and the United States. The series, which was presented from a "plant's eye view", was filmed using time-lapse photography, to show the slow progress of plant movements. One cactus was filmed continuously in time-lapse for three years, making it the longest time-lapse study undertaken by the BBC. A number of technologies, including drone-mounted cameras and motion-control robotics were used to capture the slow movements, defense mechanisms and growth of plants. Two FPV racing drone pilots were hired to film parts of the series, as drones were faster and more eco-friendly than filming from helicopters. Creative director Mike Gunton explained that the racing drone pilots had "[the] dexterous skill to be able to operate those drones in the most incredibly micro-detailed way."
Specialized camera rigs called "Triffids" were developed for the series. The "Triffids" were created by former military engineer Chris Field, who developed them to capture plant movements in the wild. Field had been inspired to develop timelapse camera technology by watching the BBC documentary Planet Earth. Field also developed robotic rigs which could move freely around a plant while capturing it in timelapse. Producer Paul Williams discovered Fields' camera work by seeing a timelapse of Venus flytraps he had made that was linked on Kickstarter. Based on that video, Williams hired him to develop new technologies for The Green Planet. Williams stated that the name of the rigs came from John Wyndham's 1951 science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids, about a species of mobile, carnivorous plants.
It was the first documentary on plant life Attenborough had created since The Private Life of Plants in 1995. In the fourth episode of Green Planet, Attenborough revisited a creosote bush (larrea tridentata) in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona which had previously been featured in The Living Planet, a series which he filmed in 1982. The bush had grown only a quarter of an inch in the intervening forty years.
Original music was composed by Benji Merrison and Will Slater.
Premiere
The series premiered at the IMAX Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland on 31 October 2021. The premiere took place during the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. English actress Maisie Williams delivered a speech introducing the first episode. Attenborough also spoke at the summit, and received a standing ovation.