This is the greatest of all stories. It is the history of the development of life on this planet through 3,500 million years, told in terms of animals and plants that are alive today. It was three years in the making; it involved one and a half million miles of travel and it features ome of the most beautiful, breathtaking and ambitious photography ever seen on television.
The thirteen programmes chronicle all the major events in the evolution of life. The development of the first multi-celled organisms in the ancient oceans, the move from sea to land and then from land into the air, the development of warm-blooded animals and the appearance of humanity.
As the narrative unfolds, the extraordinary diversity of evolving life becomes apparent. The horseshoe crabs which emerge in millions on a predictable night each year to indulge in mass orgies on New England beaches. The South American frog which hatches its young under the skin of its back so they emerge like animated warts. The lizard which stands pointing north to south or east to west according to the time of day. The bower bird that has a predilection for blue objects and a violent aversion to white ones. These are just some of the multitude of creatures which feature in this landmark series.
Episode 1: The Infinite Variety
David Attenborough travels back through time to find the earliest evidence of life on the planet and traces its development in the oceans of the world into a myriad of simple forms and ultimately the great reefs of coral. They were the first signs to be visible from space, indicating that life had started on Planet Earth.
Episode 2: Building Bodies
