Many of us are still mourning the end of Blue Planet II – the most-watched TV show of 2017 – but good news, BBC One is about to air a brand new nature show – written and directed entirely by women.
Animals With Cameras starts on Thursday 1st February and the concept is as cute (and potentially hilarious) as the name suggests.
Creatures including meerkats, chimps, cheetahs and penguins had cameras attached to them during filming in a bid to provide viewers and scientists with a new insight into how these animals live.
The show is the BBC's first big nature show written and directed solely by women, the Guardian reported.
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Speaking about the all-female team of writers and directors on Animals With Cameras, Anne Sommerfield, one of the directors, said she and her fellow directors were “just the best candidates for the job available at the time," although she admitted it was a momentous occasion.
“The fact it was an all-female-directed series is a really encouraging sign,” she told the Guardian. “I hope it inspires younger female film-makers to pursue their dreams.”
The first episode will see three animals take centre stage: meerkats burrowing underground in the Kalahari Desert, a 4-year-old orphan chimp named Kimbang, and penguins in Argentina, whose tiny cameras will accompany them on a 300km journey out to sea.
The idea to attach cameras onto the animals was sparked by scientists, who wanted to get a glimpse into their lives for their research. The technology the team used sounds remarkably sophisticated.
“We had to have cameras that were under 5% of meerkats’ bodyweight, and that had lights and recording devices that were less than one-fifth the size of an iPhone,” Sommerfield told the Guardian. “They had to be 100% comfortable. I was director of casting; like people they are all individual characters. The animals were treated far better than the humans!” We're glad to hear it.
Animals With Cameras starts on Thursday 1st February on BBC One at 8pm.
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