The Blue Planet

The Blue Planet is a Discovery Channel/BBC Natural History Unit co-produced television series subtitled "a natural history of the oceans", consisting of eight episodes, presented by David Attenborough, originally transmitted in September/ October 2001. The project cost about £7 million. Over 12 million people watched The Blue Planet when it first aired on BBC1 in the UK and it regularly achieved an audience share of over 30%. The Blue Planet has since been sold to over fifty countries. The screening was therapuetic to many, the first episode being broadcast the day after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks.

Related Topics:
Discovery Channel - BBC - Television series - Natural history - Ocean - David Attenborough - 2001 - £ - September 11 Terrorist Attacks

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The underwater photography set new standards, both for its beauty and for never-before-photographed sequences of ocean life. The soundtrack music is by George Fenton. Recently-discovered species were photographed for the first time, and never-before witnessed behavior was captured in the series' sequences.

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The individual episodes are:

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• "The Blue Planet"
• "The Deep"
• "Open Ocean"
• "Frozen Seas"
• "Seasonal Seas"
• "Coral Seas"
• "Tidal Seas"
• "Coasts"

Each episode was just under 50 minutes long, recorded in with stereo sound.

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There was an accompanying book, and the series is available as a three- disc DVD set, including three additional programmes:

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• Making Waves (the making of The Blue Planet; ~50 mins)
• Deep Trouble (ecological documentary; ~50 mins)
• Blue (a five- minute theatrical short) plus interviews with the production team and a photo gallery.

A theatrical release called Deep Blue was released which consisted entirely of re-edited footage shot for the Blue Planet accompanied by narration from Michael Gambon.

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The series was preceeded by The Life of Birds (1998) and followed by The Life of Mammals (2002-2003).

Related Topics:
The Life of Birds - 1998 - The Life of Mammals - 2002 - 2003

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