Life Story (TV series)

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Life Story
BBC series title card
Series title card from BBC broadcast
GenreNature documentary
Narrated byDavid Attenborough
ComposerMurray Gold
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producerMike Gunton
Running time60 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
BBC One HD
Release23 October (2014-10-23) –
27 November 2014 (2014-11-27)

Life Story is a British natural-history television series with

BBC Natural History Unit on the production team.[1] The six-part series reveals the challenges faced by individual animals at different stages of their lives and was first broadcast on BBC One in 2014. The series is introduced and narrated by David Attenborough.[2]

Production

The series was announced by the BBC on 8 July 2011 with the working title Survival,[3] later changed to Life Story. It is a BBC Television, Discovery Channel, France Télévisions and Open University co-production and is the first Natural History Unit series to film using ultra high-definition 4K cameras.[4] The series was marketed by BBC Worldwide at the BBC Worldwide Showcase event in 2014.[5]

The series has been produced with extensive use of surround sound effects, and with out-of-frame sounds changing with each change of shot; something that is often minimised to avoid distraction but which works well on wildlife material. It is currently broadcast with Dolby 5.1 surround on Freesat.

Broadcast

British television

Life Story's world premiere took place at Bristol's Cinema de Lux on 14 October 2014, to coincide with the BBC's 80th anniversary in the city.

making-of
documentary called Life Story Diaries.

International

The series was mainly broadcast internationally on BBC Earth channel, with a few exceptions for some countries.

In Canada, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation aired the series on CBC-TV from 11 January 2015.[7]

On 6 June 2015, the series began its run on American television on the Discovery network, premiering on the Discovery Channel, and retained David Attenborough's narration from the original British television broadcasts.[8]

Episodes

No.TitleOriginal air dateUK viewers
(millions) [9]
1"First Steps"23 October 2014 (2014-10-23)5.12 million viewers
David Attenborough introduces the series from South Africa, where he watches
black-footed albatross
are also shown. Life Story Diaries features the Greenland shoot and the difficult scenes witnessed by the film crew.
2"Growing Up"30 October 2014 (2014-10-30)4.65 million viewers
This episode focuses on the challenges faced by young animals as they gain independence. A juvenile
veined octopus must use its ingenuity to protect itself from a pursuing flounder. As a racket-tailed hummingbird enters adulthood, it must quickly adapt to an exhaustive daily schedule in order to survive. The many challenges faced by hummingbirds in the cloud forests of Peru are filmed in intricate detail. Two newly independent cheetah sisters struggle to make their first big game kill, but when an opportunity arises they work together in order to successfully capture a male impala
. Life Story Diaries follows the team's two-and-a-half-year quest to capture footage of young Arctic foxes snow diving for lemmings.
3"Home"6 November 2014 (2014-11-06)4.41 million viewers
This programme shows how animals go about establishing, using and defending a home. On the plains of Zambia, a pack of
chimpanzee
troop relies on detailed knowledge of their territory to endure a drought. The elders lead the troop to a dry river bed where water still flows beneath the surface. Life Story Diaries reveals how the Zambia crew obtained rare footage of a complete wild dog hunt.
4"Power"13 November 2014 (2014-11-13)N/A
The fourth stage of life's journey is for animals to gain power and the privileges it brings: enhanced social status and a better chance of siring offspring. The programme follows the struggles of an orphaned
honey ants, teamwork turns to treason as worker ants kill all but one of the queens that had worked together to dig the burrow for their colony. Some animals employ aggression as the best strategy to gain power, illustrated by the brutal boxing matches of male kangaroos and the jousting of sharp-tailed grouse
. Life Story Diaries features the Senegal chimpanzee shoot, where the crew spent 700 hours with the troop to film the spear-hunting behaviour.
5"Courtship"20 November 2014 (2014-11-20)N/A
The competition to breed has created both the most extraordinary beauty and the most violent battles seen in nature. Waved albatross pair for life and spend hours canoodling with each other. But for a male peacock jumping spider one wrong move in his dazzling courtship routine may well prove fatal. A male flame bowerbird creates a stick sculpture decorated with shells and berries to impress a mate. Even that isn't enough. He then uses it as a backdrop to show off his vivid colours in a dazzling dance. But things don't go to plan as his bower is destroyed by mischievous youngsters and a rival male. But the most extraordinary display of all is created by a tiny, drab male puffer fish. He builds a spectacular submarine 'crop circle' in the sand. It's the most perfect and complex structure created by any animal. The crop circles were only discovered in southern Japan in 1995 and the fish architect was only identified in 2011.
6"Parenthood"27 November 2014 (2014-11-27)N/A
In the final episode of Life Story, animals attempt to rear their
crocodiles? Or should she lead her foal through treacherous rapids? Her foal's life may rest on the decision she makes. In a touching scene elephants
delicately stroke the bones of an ancestor. We cannot know what they are thinking, but perhaps like humans they have a sense of a shared history? It is a communal experience that appears to draw the family members closer together.
-"The Full Circle"1 January 2015 (2015-01-01)N/A
In this highlights programme compiled from the recent Life Story series, David Attenborough brings us the universal story that unites each of us with every animal on the planet, the story of the greatest of all adventures - the journey through life. For each stage of life we see the most spectacular, beautiful or dramatic stories from the Life Story series. The journey begins with one of the most talked-about sequences - flightless
lemmings living underneath. In pursuit of a home, tropical hermit crabs do something seen nowhere else in nature. In meerkat society, a youngster must quickly learn how to defend home and family from snakes. In a spectacular showdown between the meerkat clan and a venomous cobra, the youngsters learn a vital life lesson. In a sequence that has since gone viral across the globe, a tiny, drab male puffer fish creates the most complex and beautiful structure made by any animal on earth. He builds a spectacular submarine 'crop circle' in the sand to attract a female's attention. Parenthood for a mother zebra involves a life-and-death choice on where to cross the river during migration. In a touching final scene, elephants
delicately stroke the bones of an ancestor.

Merchandise

DVD and Blu-ray

The series was released in the UK as Region 2, two-disc DVD (BBCDVD3981)[10] and Blu-ray (BBCBD0281) box sets[11] by BBC Worldwide on 1 December 2014.

In United States, both DVD and Blu-ray were released on 29 March 2016 by

Warner Home Video.[12][13] As for Canada, both DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released under Bilingual Edition on 10 November 2015.[14][15]

In Australia and New Zealand, DVD and Blu-ray were released by ABC DVD/Village Roadshow on 8 October 2015.[16][17]

Books

In the United Kingdom, an accompanying hardcover format was written by Mike Gunton and Rupert Barrington. It was released on 9 October 2014 and published by BBC Books (

ISBN 9781849906647).[18]

References

  1. ^ Brzoznowski, Kristin (10 February 2014). "BBC Worldwide Gears Up for Showcase". Worldscreen. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  2. ^ "Dolphins set to soar". Stuff.co.nz. 5 February 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  3. ^ "BBC unveils broad range of new natural history commissions". BBC. 8 July 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  4. ^ Ritchie, Kevin (8 April 2013). "NAB '13: Raising the bar with 4K". Realscreen. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  5. ^ "BBC Worldwide welcomes a fantastic line up of TV talent to its biggest and best Showcase ever". BBC Worldwide. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  6. ^ "BBC Bristol At 80: exclusive Bristol screening of NHU's Life Story, hosted by David Attenborough". BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  7. ^ "David Attenborough's latest epic series, Life Story, to air on CBC". CBC Media Centre. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  8. ^ "LIFE STORY". Discovery Press Web. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  9. BARB
    . Retrieved 4 November 2014. (data available for Life Story broadcast weeks by searching archive)
  10. ^ "Life Story (DVD)". Amazon.co.uk. December 2014.
  11. ^ "Life Story (Blu-Ray)". Amazon.co.uk. December 2014.
  12. ^ "Life Story (DVD)". Amazon. 29 March 2016.
  13. ^ "Life Story (Blu-ray)". Amazon. 29 March 2016.
  14. ^ "Life Story (DVD) - Bilingual Edition". Amazon.ca. 10 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Life Story (Blu-ray) - Bilingual Edition". Amazon.ca. 10 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Life Story (DVD)". ABC Shop.
  17. ^ "Life Story (Blu-Ray)". ABC Shop.
  18. ^ "Life Story (Hardback)". BBC Shop.

External links

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