BBC Readies More Attenborough with 'Life on Earth at 50'
The infamous frog key art from 1979's 'Life on Earth'
BBC/PBS
Sir David Attenborough is the most famous naturalist in the world, but before 1979, he was just another upper-class Brit who discovered the power of television by being in the right place at the right time. That final year of the 1970s marked the release of Attenborough's seminal 13-episode Life on Earth, kicking off his "Life Series," premiering on the BBC before crossing the pond to PBS. The series was groundbreaking in multiple ways, not the least due to having taken three years to film, using top-of-the-line technology. Now, with the 50th anniversary of the start of production around the corner, the BBC will revisit the miniseries Life on Earth at 50.
One would think 2029 would be a more natural 50th anniversary since it would mark a half-century since the series debut, instead of 2026, which marks the start of a behind-the-scenes process most had no idea the BBC was undertaking. However, with Attenborough barely 16 months shy of 100 years old, the odds of him being here in 2029 are about as good as Queen Elizabeth II's were of living to see the final season of The Crown. With the BBC currently hopeful for his participation in the lookback, aiming for 2026, coinciding with Attenborough's centenary, is a much better plan.
Attenborough is still working despite being nearly triple digits in age; his newest series, Asia, is scheduled to debut on BBC America in early 2025. He no longer travels with the camera crews, but he still does the series' narration, and it's his guidance that leads these specials to be edited in such a way as to carry on his continuing mission to sound the alarm about climate change. Bringing back Life on Earth also puts his experience in perspective, as the glorious moments in nature he made famous are now threatened.
The BBC's synopsis of the series reads:
Life on Earth was the BBC’s attempt to provide an authored overview of nature in the same way that Kenneth Clark examined art, architecture, and philosophy in Civilisation. The show took three years to produce, opening in the South American rainforest and journeying to the Great Barrier Reef. Many creatures and behaviours were captured on film for the first time, including the courtship displays of birds of paradise.
Few details are available, but Deadline confirms that the BBC plans to start working on the series in early 2025. A BBC source told the publication: “Life on Earth was a pivotal series in global natural history filmmaking, so naturally, the BBC will be marking this anniversary.”
It =remains to be seen which American broadcaster will pick up the anniversary lookback. In 1979, there was no competition for such a series when it went to PBS. One of the many things Life on Earth's success did was change that, with recently launched cable networks like Discovery outbidding the public stations to broadcast Attenborough's shows in the 1990s and BBC America (and later parent company AMC Networks) locking down the rights to Attenborough fare in the early aughts. In the last few years, Attenborough's projects have aired and streamed on Amazon and Netflix, with older series winding up on BritBox. While it would make sense for the series to air on BBC America, don't be surprised if PBS also makes a run at it.
Life on Earth at 50 is expected to reveal a release date and an American distributor in due course.
