| Life on Earth | |
|---|---|
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:David_Attenborough,_Life_on_Earth.jpg) Region 2 DVD cover | |
| Genre | Nature documentary |
| Presented by | David Attenborough |
| Composer | Edward Williams |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Christopher Parsons |
| Producers |
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| Running time | 55 minutes |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Two |
| Release | 16 January – 10 April 1979 |
| Related | |
| The Living Planet | |
| Infobox instructions (only shown in preview) | |
Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough is a British television natural history series made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros. Television and Reiner Moritz Productions. It was transmitted in the UK from 16 January 1979.
During the course of the series presenter David Attenborough, following the format established by Kenneth Clark's Civilisation and Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man (both series which he designed and produced as director of BBC2), travels the globe in order to trace the story of the evolution of life on the planet. Like the earlier series, it was divided into 13 programmes (each of around 55 minutes' duration). The executive producer was Christopher Parsons and the music was composed by Edward Williams.
At a cost exceeding £1 million ($1.2 million), it was an immense project that involved filming over 100 locations around the world and took three years in the making by a team of 30 people with the help of more than 500 scientists.[1][2] Highly acclaimed as a milestone in the history of British wildlife television, it established Attenborough as not only the foremost television naturalist, but also an iconic figure in British cultural life.[2] It is the first in Attenborough's Life series of programmes and was followed by The Living Planet (1984).
- ^ Gouyon, J.-B. (2011). "The BBC Natural History Unit: Instituting Natural History Film-Making in Britain". History of Science. 49 (4): 425–451. doi:10.1177/007327531104900403. S2CID 147822719.
- ^ a b Gouyon, J.-B. (2019). "Life on Earth and Beyond: Producing the Wildlife Blockbuster". BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 205–245. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-19982-1. ISBN 9783030199814. S2CID 203491267.