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Desert Worlds

2022 Nature

Plants that have developed to thrive in the desert, including cacti that grow in the shade of other trees and collect water in pleated trunks that expand and contract - but can also find themselves a host to other plants, like desert mistletoe. This programme also reveals how tobacco plants being eaten by caterpillars are able to summon the c ...reatures' natural predators, and how tumbleweeds roll across the landscape, only unfurling and growing when they encounter rain. Show More

Series: The Green Planet

Drowning in Plastic

2018 Nature

Our blue planet is facing one its biggest threats in human history. Trillions of pieces of plastic are choking the very lifeblood of our earth, and every marine animal, from the smallest plankton to the largest mammals, is being affected. But can we turn back this growing plastic tide before it is too late? Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin visit ...s scientists working at the cutting edge of plastics research. She works with some of the world's leading marine biologists and campaigners to discover the true dangers of plastic in our oceans and what it means for the future of all life on our planet, including us.
Liz travels to a remote island off the coast of Australia that is the nesting site for a population of seabirds called flesh-footed shearwaters. Newly hatched chicks are unable to regurgitate effectively, so they are filling up on deadly plastic. She visits the Coral Triangle that stretches from Papua New Guinea to the Solomon Islands to find out more from top coral scientists trying to work out why plastic is so lethal to the reefs, fragile ecosystems that contain 25 per cent of all marine life. Show More

Fierce Queens: Growing Up

2020 Nature

Reese Witherspoon hosts this nature series that explores the fabulous females of the animal kingdom. From ants to cheetahs, these ladies call the shots in their world and sit at the top of the social hierarchy earning them the title 'Fierce Queens'. In the first episode, Reese takes us on a journey with two teenage cheetah sisters, coming of ...age in the wild and learning how to work together to survive. Show More

Series: Fierce Queens

FLOW For Love of Water

2008 Nature

Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and ... the emergence of a domineering world water cartel. Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?" Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround. Show More

Great Electric Airplane Race

2021 Technology

Can new emission-free electric planes replace our polluting airliners and revolutionize personal transportation in our cities? The film takes a ride in some quiet, energy-efficient, prototypes that are vying for success as electric flight takes off.
The race is on to stop the climate emergency and we're seeing more and more people really ...paying attention to their carbon footprint. Aviation is a fast-growing offender, but is it too slow to respond. Could rapid progress in electric technology change the equation? Show More

Growing

1994 Nature

The second episode is about how plants gain their sustenance. Sunlight is one of the essential requirements if a seed is to germinate, and Attenborough highlights the cheese plant as an example whose young shoots head for the nearest tree trunk and then climb to the top of the forest canopy, developing its leaves en route. Using sunshine, air ..., water and a few minerals, the leaves are, in effect, the "factories" that produce food. However, some, such as the begonia, can thrive without much light. To gain moisture, plants typically use their roots to probe underground. Trees pump water up pipes that run inside their trunks, and Attenborough observes that a sycamore can do this at the rate of 450 litres an hour — in total silence. Too much rainfall can clog up a leaf's pores, and many have specially designed 'gutters' to cope with it. However, their biggest threat is from animals, and some require extreme methods of defence, such as spines, camouflage, or poison. Some can move quickly to deter predators: the mimosa can fold its leaves instantly when touched, and the Venus flytrap eats insects by closing its leaves around its prey when triggered. Another carnivorous plant is the trumpet pitcher that snares insects when they fall into its tubular leaves. Attenborough visits Borneo to see the largest pitcher of them all, Nepenthes rajah, whose traps contain up to two litres of water and have been known to kill small rodents. Show More

Series: The Private Life of Plants

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