If BBC Earth told you they would take you closer to nature and the wild, you better believe them. And it is not just the random raw footage of your usual wildlife; it is an emotion-filled drama with first-hand accounts of fights for survival and tales of perseverance against all odds.
By now you must have seen the sequence of a marine iguana running for life chased by racer snakes gone viral on social media, viewed by millions. The iguana’s close call with death coming from all sides is just one of the many hair-raising encounters you would witness on Planet Earth II, BBC Earth’s wildlife documentary series.
Ten years ago with Planet Earth, BBC set new standards in the filming of wildlife and before the release of the sequel this year they promised to take you even closer to nature. They have done exactly that.
The first episode of Planet Earth II called Islands was exclusively screened in Doha at the British embassy for a select audience on Sunday night. Natasha Hussain, Vice President and General Manager for the Middle East and Mediterranean at BBC Worldwide, was here to unveil the new series filmed in ultra-HD with eye-popping high definition.
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough with music from Hans Zimmer, the first episode featured some never seen before vibrant colours of nature and some ridiculously close encounters with wild animals.
British ambassador to Qatar Ajay Sharma, George Dixon, BBC’s Global Editorial Director and Chadden Hunter, one of the series producers of Planet Earth II were present on the occasion. Hunter also held a brief Q&A to share more behind-the-scenes details with the audience.
It is hard to pin one single favourite sequence in the first episode even for Hunter himself. There are so many of them. “But I think it would be the lizards and the snakes because there is so much drama in it. There are so many different angles and viewers just connect with the baby iguana so strongly that it feels like a scene from The Mummy or Indiana Jones or a horror film,” says Hunter, talking to Community after the screening of the film.
From different islands in the world including the rarely visited remote island of Zavadovski in the Southern Ocean where 1.5mn-strong chinstrap penguin colony lives, the first episode is full of personal life tales of the animals inhabiting these lesser known places on earth. Reflecting on the real-life struggles, these tales highlight the stories of fight for survival that these animals have to endure day in day out. Ever complained life is difficult?
Meet the penguins living on an active volcano undertaking a life-threatening journey every day to get food for their babies and to thus keep the life cycle running. Narrated through one of the millions of penguins living on the island, Planet Earth II gives you an insight into how difficult life can get on earth. “We are always working with the top scientists from around the world. We have researchers who have a wildlife biology background. I have a Phd in wildlife biology. So we know a lot about the stuff we are doing,” says Hunter.
He says sometimes even when they have the behaviour of certain animals examined but they are not sure, they check back with scientists. “We want to be very careful because we want to up the drama but at the same time we do not want to be untruthful,” says Hunter, one of the producers.
He recalls various close encounters with the wild animals while shooting for the film. One of them was the sequence where two giant Kommodo dragons are engaged in a fight. However, the most terrifying experience for Hunter was for the shoot of a sequence where a lion hunts buffaloes.  To shoot the sequence, they went in through a swamp on a tiny boat that got stuck in water. They had to jump out of the boat and push it above their heads over the vegetation.
“We were arm-pit deep in water. And the cameraman who was a local said you got to take your shoes off so that you can feel for the crocodiles. Because if you step on the croc with your shoes you would not know it was a croc and as you press it would snap around and take your leg off, kill you,” Hunter recalls, it was nerve-wrecking, he adds.
Ever more close to animals and revealing new wildlife dramas for the first time, Planet Earth II has easily surpassed the previous series and is going to be viewed by millions over the next few years.