The five-part series visits Canada; filming Maple trees in Northern Ontario and Lodgepole pines in British Columbia
“Every mouthful of food that we eat, every lungful of air that we breathe, depends on plants” – Sir David Attenborough
(Photo credit: BBC/Sam Barker)
(Toronto, ON – June 6, 2022) – Presenter Sir David Attenborough, 96, travels the globe in the latest BBC Earth landmark series, The Green Planet, to explore Earth’s biodiversity and the secret, fascinating life of plants. Using pioneering new filmmaking technology and the latest science, The Green Planet takes viewers on an immersive journey from the deepest jungles to the harshest deserts, revealing the strange and wonderful world of plants as never seen before. Living secret, unseen lives, plants are often overlooked. Yet they are as aggressive, competitive and dramatic as animals — locked in life-and-death struggles for food and light, taking part in fierce battles for territory and desperately trying to reproduce and scatter their young. The Green Planet premieres Wednesday, July 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on BBC Earth in Canada. BBC Earth is also available on Amazon Prime Video with The Green Planet airing simultaneously with the linear channel from July 6.
Filmed in 27 countries over four years, the five-part documentary marks the first time Sir David has returned to filming the world of plants since his 1995 series, The Private Life of Plants. Now in 2022, Sir David believes we are living at the perfect time to revisit the plant world. “There has been a revolution worldwide in attitudes towards the natural world in my lifetime — an awakening and an awareness of how important the natural world is to us all,” the legendary broadcaster said. “An awareness that we would starve without plants, we wouldn’t be able to breathe without plants. Yet people’s understanding about plants, except in a very kind of narrow way, has not kept up with that. I think this series will bring it home.”
The Green Planet includes stops in Canada to capture Maple trees waking from hibernation and Lodgepole pines being attacked by mountain pine beetles. Throughout his travels in the series, Sir David meets the largest living things that have ever existed, trees that care for each other, plants that hunt animals and plants that breed so fast they could cover the planet in a matter of months. He finds time travelers — seeds that can outlive civilizations and plants that remain unchanged for decades. By examining our relationship with plants past, present and future, The Green Planet reveals how all animal life, including ours, is totally dependent on plants.
Using pioneering motion-control robotics systems, The Green Planet takes viewers on a magical journey, going beyond the power of the human eye to make visible the amazing, hidden life of plants. Thermal cameras, macro frame-stacking, ultra-high-speed cameras and the latest developments in microscopy reveal the lives of plants and their incredible beauty. Surprisingly social, they communicate with each other, care for their young and help the weak and injured. They can plan, they can count — and they can remember.
The Green Planet is a BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit production for BBC and PBS, and co-produced by the Open University, bilibili, ZDF German Television, France Télévisions and NHK. The presenter and narrator is David Attenborough. The executive producer is Michael Gunton. The series producer is Rupert Barrington.