• 2018
  • 1h
Wild Britain

Summary Wildlife documentary series narrated by Hugh Bonneville revealing the hidden lives of the animals that live in various habitats around Britain. View more details

  • 2018
  • 1h

Wild Britain

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Hugh Bonneville

All cast & crew

8.2

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Mar 5, 2018

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Official sites : Channel 5

Language : English

Production companies : Channel 5 Television Plimsoll Productions

Summary Wildlife documentary series narrated by Hugh Bonneville revealing the hidden lives of the animals that live in various habitats around Britain. View more details

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Mar 5, 2018

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Official sites : Channel 5

Language : English

Production companies : Channel 5 Television Plimsoll Productions

Photos

Wild Britain (2018)

Episodes

View All Seasons
Episode 1 • Mar 05, 2018
Mountains
Our mountains and uplands are the most dramatic wilderness in Britain. Inaccessible, beautiful and brutal... only the hardiest of animals survive here. We open in the snowy Cairngorms, home to the Golden Eagle - our most impressive bird of prey. It can reach speeds of 180 mph - but catching a Mountain Hare isn't easy. An on-board camera offers a bird's eye view of the hunt. But these hares have survived in our uplands since the Ice Age... On the lower slopes, it's breeding season for Scotland's 400,000 red deer. We gain intimate insight into this ancient ritual, and witness a brutal battle between heavyweight stags vying for dominance and mating rights. When winter takes grip in the mountains, Ptarmigan and Reindeer vie for the crown of Britain's toughest animal, both supremely adapted to life above the treeline. Further south lie the Yorkshire Dales, home to the flamboyant black grouse. At traditional 'lekking sites' the males (or cocks) compete for dominance. Posturing, bubbling sounds and vicious fights allow the strongest cocks to take centre stage. We discover that there's more to Britain's uplands than meets the eye. Large parts of Snowdonia would be covered in trees if it weren't for the sheep that have grazed here for centuries. We discover an ambitious project to keep the sheep away from sensitive plants, like the carnivorous sundew. And every year, huge swathes of our mountains and uplands are deliberately burned to provide perfect conditions for red grouse. These native birds give the moors economic value, and by creating habitat for them some moorland managers maintain breeding grounds for rare waders, such as curlews. In Scotland, a bold project is attempting to re-tree the uplands and recreate the ancient Caledonian Forest. Trees for Life have planted almost 2 million trees as they attempt to revive this wildlife-rich habitat.
Episode 2 • Mar 12, 2018
Forests
Take a walk in Britain's forests, and you'll find yourself amongst majestic trees, some of them thousands of years old. Peer behind the curtain of leaves, and a magical world is revealed. Be in the right place at the right time, and you never know what you might find. This episode travels the length of the country to reveal Britain's elusive forest animals. It opens by revealing a booming population of Wild Boar in the Forest of Dean. Hunted out of Britain 300 years ago they're bouncing back - there are now more than a thousand here. Their presence - and vast appetite - threatens the existence of the Forest's other wildlife, including its glorious bluebells. But using a state-of-the-art thermal imaging camera we reveal that the boar actually benefit the other creatures. Goshawks, fierce birds of prey known to attack humans encroaching on their turf, are also spreading, largely unseen. Rare footage from a goshawk nest gives an insight into their family life. And we discover their hunting prowess - their power and agility mean they can fly at 40mph even through a tangle of trees. Nothing is safe from this ultimate forest hunter. We witness the heart-warming moment a family of badger cubs emerges from underground for the first time; a treetop encounter between two feisty red squirrels; the breeding ritual of Fallow Deer in the New Forest; the aggressive antics of the exotic-looking Purple Emperor butterfly; a remarkable centrally-heated Wood Ant nest in Scotland's chilly Caledonian Forest; and meet the lucky B&B owners who are paid daily visits by a family of Pine Martens. We reveal that Britain's forest wildlife is making a comeback. It may not be long before you have a pine marten or even a wild boar on your doorstep!
Episode 3 • Mar 19, 2018
Coasts
We all live within 70 miles of the coast - one of Britain's wildest habitats, where hardy creatures battle to survive. The episode opens with dramatic events at a Grey seal colony in Norfolk. The females are only in season for a few hours, so it's crucial for the huge bulls to be in the right place at the right time - and that means fighting. From sandy beaches to soaring cliffs... In Anglesey, Guillemots are setting up home on precarious ledges where their eggs will be safe from foxes and stoats. But they're soon under attack from Black-Backed Gulls. Spectacular footage showcases the gulls' pirating skills - and reveals the high stakes for the dedicated guillemot parents. On the sand dunes of the Sefton Coast, an exotic-looking Sand Lizard is on the look-out for love. But things change dramatically when a hunting Kestrel appears... Dunes are hostile places where only specialists survive, including the Tiger Beetle - the fastest insect on the planet. Its larvae ambush unwary ants, but by mimicking the tiger beetle's prey a solitary wasp turns the tables on this gruesome killer... Washed by the Gulf Stream, our coastal waters are a more attractive place to live. We find a Cuttlefish hunting for crabs... and witness its extraordinary courtship. Our estuaries are internationally important destinations for migrating birds. In The Wash, 350,000 Knot gather to feed. But when a spring tide sweeps in, they're sent up in a pulsating cloud - one of the many fine sights on Britain's coasts. Finally we head back to the seal colony, where we witness the first day in a new born pup's life. A third of the world's Grey Seals live in British waters, and numbers are soaring. Fifteen years ago this beach was deserted. This winter over 1600 pups have been born on this beach alone.
Episode 4 • Mar 26, 2018
Britain's Wild Rivers
From our Scottish lochs and golden reed beds to southern swamps and the ponds of our back gardens, Britain's "Water Worlds" are wild corners we rarely explore - but they are the most biodiverse places in Britain. The film opens with intimate views of a family of beavers in Devon. Hunted to extinction 500 years ago, these reintroduced rodents are returning to our waterways. We discover how these natural engineers alter their landscape not only to help themselves - but also to the benefit of other species. Ponds and lakes are the domain of our largest reptile, the grass snake. These two-metre predators are perfectly adapted to hunt in the shallows. On their menu are amphibians. We join a breeding frenzy of toads - but discover that their amorous intentions can have disastrous consequences. Water voles are also vulnerable to snakes. But they're more worried about each other... The Reed Warbler has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid being eaten, building an intricate nest suspended in the reeds. But it's vulnerable to a more insidious killer - the cuckoo. We witness extraordinary scenes as a blind cuckoo chick ejects its adoptive siblings from the nest. Our wetlands are rich in insects and other creepy crawlies. We witness the magical moment a dragonfly emerges from its larva, and discover a rarely-seen mass roost in the Somerset Levels. Below the surface we find a Water Spider - as she undertakes the remarkable and time-consuming task of constructing her very own silk-lined SCUBA tank. October signals the arrival of millions of birds in our wetlands. In Pembrokeshire, huge flocks of starlings join the cattle for dinner, before they head off to the reed beds to sleep. But before they tuck in for the night they put on a breath-taking performance - not for show but to avoid the peregrine falcon lying in wait.
Episode 5 • Mar 09, 2020
Water Worlds
Episode 6 • Mar 10, 2020
Countryside
Episode 7 • Mar 16, 2020
Islands
Episode 8 • Mar 17, 2020
Cities
Britain's towns and cities are our fastest growing landscape, now covering around 7% of the country. Wildlife might seem unwelcome, but our concrete jungles are a land of opportunity. Hedgehogs have seen our buildings and roads grow up around them. They love the untidy corners and the creepy-crawlies that thrive in an unkempt garden. But they've declined from 30 million to 1 million in 60 years. Not every creature is thriving in our urban world. But some have found an opportunity. Urban Foxes didn't exist until the 1930s, but now inhabit 90% of our towns and cities. Low light cameras reveal their antics in Bristol - where there are a whopping 40 per square mile. Maybe not surprising - 10% of Bristolians say they have fed them in the last year. 13,000 species of animal and plant have pioneered our concrete jungles. Many are barely noticed. Great Crested Newts enjoy an elaborate courtship in larger ponds. In a slow-speed chase, Slow Worms (really legless lizards) are revealed to be a useful ally in the War on Slugs, helping to control the 20,000 slugs found in an average British garden. There are newcomers too, like the Bee Wolf - neither bee nor wolf, but a predatory wasp that hunts honeybees in our flower-filled borders and squeezes the nectar from their bellies. Our urban skies are a battlefield. Feral pigeons - domesticated from Rock Doves 10,000 years ago - fight it out with urban gulls. The latter have trebled in number in the last 20 years. But there's a new kid on the block - Peregrine Falcons. Over 30 pairs now nest on London's tallest buildings. And there's been an explosion of exotic parakeets. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised - our urban areas can be 10 degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside.
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