There's just so much amazing nature stuff on Blu-ray (and some even in 3D) that we are spoilt for choice and whilst I admit to enjoying it on TV when its on I don't usually buy it - that is, apart from a couple of exceptions:-
1) the Jacques Cousteau 3 BD digipack film Collection (because JC was on TV a lot when I was a child) so for sentimental reasons apart from for the marvellous underwater scenery.
2) the Werner Hertzog: Encounters in the Natural World boxset because if contains the unforgettable "Grizzly Man" which I'd heard about and had to own.
Of course, all of the Sir David Attenborough OM CH CVO CBE FRS FLS FZS FSA Kt 's nature stuff is in a class of its own and he is a total National Treasure now approaching the grand age of 90 (in a couple of months), still working and with a history of nature programmes going back to the excellent "Life on Earth" (1979) produced by the BBC Natural History Unit (and even before that, from 1954 to 1963 with "Zoo Quest" and 1973's "The Tribal Eye" - a Natural History series set in S.E. Asia) to the very recent "Great Barrier Reef" from 2015.
That's not taking into account all of his other jobs such as a TV presenter in the early '50's, Controller of BBC2 and Director of Programming for both of the Beeb's networks and where he was responsible for bringing colour TV and Monty Python to the U.K. in 1969 . . .
Phew !
All that being said there is apparently a Discovery Channel version with the narration done by Sigourney Weaver (of "Gorillas in the Mist" fame . . . ) instead of by Sir David.
- Sir David's opening narration, "A hundred years ago there were one and a half billion people on Earth. Now over six billion crowd our fragile planet, But, even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity. This series will take you to the last wildernesses and show you the planet and its wildlife like you have never seen it before."
- Tagline - "The Most Amazing Achievement in Natural History on TV the World Has Ever Seen".
The facts and figures speak for themselves:-
- Project took 40 camera teams shooting at over 200 different locations all over the world for a period of more than 5 years.
- The most expensive nature documentary series ever (costing the equivalent of $25Mcommissioned by the BBC and the first to be shot (almost entirely) in HD.
- Very profitable award-winning (5 Primetime Emmys et al) global brand with high appreciation ratings eventually sold to 150 countries.
- Words like "Epic" and "Landmark" are appropriate for this series.
- The series was chosen to trial the new BBC high-definition channel in 2006 and its opening episode was its first ever scheduled programme in that format.
- First 5 episodes drew an average audience of 11 million in the U.K. with the first episode "Pole to Pole" broadcast here in March 2006 watched by more people than any other natural history programme since Sir David's previous series "The Blue Planet" in 2001.
- Audience figures in the U.S., on Discovery and Discovery HD, gave the channel its third highest audience ever with records broken during its broadcast run, reaching more than 100 million viewers and becoming, "the most watched cable event of all time".
- In February of this year the BBC announced a six-part a SEQUEL entitled "Planet Earth 2" for release later this year with Sir David Attenborough returning as narrator and presenter.
- Massive DVD and BD sales by the end of 2007 of 3 million units made it the highest-grossing HD title and one of the top ten DVD titles of the year.
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