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The Reunion

Factual: Life Stories

Series which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Reunion: Life on Earth

20/04/2014

Life on Earth

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion, Life on Earth

Sue MacGregor reunites Sir David Attenborough with the team behind Life on Earth.

Sue MacGregor reunites Sir David Attenborough with the team who made the BBC's first natural history blockbuster, Life on Earth.

Life on Earth was the first natural history blockbuster on television. Written and narrated by David Attenborough, it told the story of evolution in thirteen weekly instalments, stunning viewers with incredible underwater photography, and astonishing close-ups of creatures never before seen on British screens.

Broadcast in 1979, it took three years to make and involved a staggering one and a half million miles of travel. Viewers were exposed to more than 650 different species of animal, in a survey of life from bacteria to man and all in between.

In The Reunion, Sir David Attenborough is reunited with some of the team he worked with on the series. Richard Brock produced the popular episode on amphibians featuring extraordinary varieties of frog: one whose young emerge from under the skin on its back and another whose male incubates the eggs in his vocal sac, ultimately giving birth through his mouth. Assistant producer Mike Salisbury recalls the difficulties filming lions in Tanzania that eventually resulted in a groundbreaking depiction of a lion-hunt.

The most enduring sequence in the series was David Attenborough's astonishing encounter with gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda, frequently voted one of the top TV moments of all time. He and cameraman Martin Saunders reminisce about the extraordinary experience they had.

Pam Jackson and Jane Wales, the producer's assistants who planned the incredibly complex filming schedules describe what was happening behind the scenes, and their attempts to keep their presenter looking presentable even while scrambling through wild jungle.

Producer: Deborah Dudgeon
Series Producer: David Prest

THE REUNION is a Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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