The BBC Factual department has unveiled a vast slate including a natural history series following four animal families over four years and shows commemorating the 40th anniversaries of the Falklands War and AIDS crisis.
At an event yesterday in London, Fiona Campbell, Acting Head of Factual, Arts and Classical Music, unveiled Kingdom, which will follow leopards, hyenas, wild dogs and lions and was described as “one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken” by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU).
Filmed in Zambia, the show is a co-production with BBC America and is similar in scope to 2019’s Dynasties, which followed five royal families of the animal kingdom.
“With more time in the field than any previous NHU production, never has a BBC landmark followed a group of characters so intensely over such a long period or spent so much time embedded in a single habitat,” said the BBC.
Meanwhile in natural history, Campbell unveiled the six presenters hosting one episode each of environmental series Our Changing Planet, with Ade Adepitan, Steve Backshall, Liz Bonnin, Gordon Buchanan, Chris Packham and Ella al-Shamahi set to take the reins of the show, which also comes from the NHU and is co-produced for PBS.
The BBC Factual department is also commemorating two 40th anniversaries.
Falklands: The Frontline Story will trace the deeply traumatic and personal stories of the 1982 war through 10 British soldiers who fought on its frontline over one 90-minute film and The AIDS Tapes will feature actors lip-syncing archival footage of gay men who lived at the heart of the epidemic, which was chronicled so powerfully in Russell T Davies’ Channel 4/HBO drama It’s a Sin.
Campbell also unveiled Trouble at Top Shop about the demise of the iconic high street brand, and Scarlett’s Driving School, in which host Scarlett Moffatt, who failed her driving test 13 times, welcomes Brits to a unique five day driving school in northern England.
Campbell, who is also BBC3 Controller, said: “No other broadcaster has such an extraordinary breadth of factual, arts and classical music content: our programming is watched in huge numbers and gains international recognition.
“Coming up, we have an exciting range of new content being released across BBC channels and iPlayer that demonstrates our commitment to championing talent on and off screen and bringing viewers high impact, high value content that opens up the world to them and reflects their lives across the UK.”