Who Said We Live on a Blue Planet

2001 British nature documentary television series

This article is about the BBC nature documentary. For other uses, see Blue Planet.

The Blue Planet
Also known as	The Blue Planet: Seas of Life
Genre	Nature documentary
Narrated by	David Attenborough
Composer	George Fenton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer	Alastair Fothergill
Running time	50 minutes
Production companies	BBC Natural History Unit Discovery Channel Warner Bros.
Release
Original network	BBC One
Picture format	16:9 (576i)
Audio format	Stereophonic
Original release	12 September (2001-09-12) – 31 October 2001 (2001-10-31)
Chronology
Followed by	Blue Planet II
Related shows	Planet Earth Frozen Planet

The Blue Planet is a British nature documentary series created and produced by the BBC. It premiered on 12 September 2001 in the United Kingdom. It is narrated by David Attenborough.

Described as "the first ever comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceans",^[1] each of the eight 50-minute episodes examines a different aspect of marine life. The underwater photography included creatures and behaviour that had previously never been filmed.^[2]

The series won a number of Emmy and BAFTA TV awards for its music and cinematography.^[3] The executive producer was Alastair Fothergill and the music was composed by George Fenton. Attenborough narrated this series before presenting the next in his 'Life' series of programmes, The Life of Mammals (2002), and the same production team created Planet Earth (2006).

A sequel series, Blue Planet II was aired on BBC One in 2017.

Background [edit]

The series took almost five years to make, involving nearly 200 filming locations. The fact that most of the ocean environment remains a mystery presented the production team with many challenges. Besides witnessing some animal behaviours for the first time, the crew also observed some that were new to science. The producers were helped by marine scientists all over the world with state-of-the-art equipment.

Blue whales – whose migration routes were previously unknown – were located by air, after some of the animals had been given temporary radio tags. The camera team spent three years on standby, using a microlight to land on the water nearby when they finally caught up with the creatures in the Gulf of California. The open ocean proved more difficult and over 400 days were spent in often unsuccessful filming trips. After six weeks, the crew chanced upon a school of spinner dolphins, which in turn led them to a shoal of tuna. Off Mexico, the behaviour of a flock of frigatebirds guided the cameramen to a group of sailfish and marlin: the fastest inhabitants of the sea. Near the coast of Natal in South Africa, the team spent two seasons attempting to film the annual sardine run, a huge congregation of predators such as sharks and dolphins, that assembles to feast on the migrating fish by corralling them into "bait balls". Meanwhile, in Monterey Bay, orca were documented attacking gray whales and killing a calf. Filming in the deep ocean required the use of special submersibles. One of them enabled the crew to dive over a mile into the San Diego trench, where the carcass of a 40-ton gray whale had been placed to attract a large variety of scavengers.^[4]

When first transmitted on BBC One, over 12 million people watched the series and it regularly achieved an audience share of over 30%.

In 2018 a newly-discovered species of phytoplankton (Syracosphaera azureaplaneta) was named by scientists in honour of the programme, and in recognition of David Attenborough's contribution to promoting wider understanding and awareness of the oceanic environment.^{[5] [6]}

Episodes [edit]

"Our planet is a blue planet: over seventy percent of it is covered by the sea. The Pacific Ocean alone covers half the globe. You can fly across it non-stop for twelve hours and still see nothing more than a speck of land. This series will reveal the complete natural history of our ocean planet, from its familiar shores to the mysteries of its deepest seas."

—David Attenborough, from episode one

Merchandise [edit]

DVD and Blu-ray [edit]

The series was available as a 3-disc DVD set (BBCDVD1089, released 3 December 2001 and re-released in 2003), including interviews with the production team, a photo gallery and three additional programmes:

• Making Waves: the making of The Blue Planet (50 mins)
• Deep Trouble: an ecological documentary (50 mins)
• Blue: a five-minute theatrical short

The first DVD has now been superseded by a 4-disc Special Edition (BBCDVD1792, released 3 October 2005), which has three extra programmes:

• The Abyss
• Dive to Shark Volcano
• Amazon Abyss

In the US, there is a 4-disc Collector's Set edition (Released 2002), including 8 featurettes, interviews, photo galleries and one additional programmes:

• Deep Trouble: an ecological documentary (50 mins)

In the US, there is also a 5-disc Special Edition (BBC040754, released 6 May 2008). It contains the same features as the US 4-disc versions, but includes a fifth disk containing four special presentations:^[18]

• Amazon Abyss: discover an array of creatures living in the Amazon
• Dive to Shark Volcano: venture to Cocoa Island, an underwater volcano
• Beneath the Tides: explore an estuary in winter
• Antarctica

BBC released a 3-disc The Blue Planet: Seas of Life on Blu-ray on 9 April 2013.^[19] It contains the featured presentations as well as a third disk containing interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and five special presentations:

• Amazon Abyss
• Dive to Shark Volcano
• Beneath the Tides
• Antarctica
• Deep Trouble.

Books [edit]

The accompanying book, The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans by Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill and Martha Holmes (with a foreword by David Attenborough), was published by BBC Worldwide on 27 September 2001 (ISBN 0-563-38498-0).^[20]

The companion volume for the US market of the same book was published by Dorling Kindersley (DK) and released in 2002 (ISBN 0-789-48265-7).^[21]

Film [edit]

Deep Blue is a 2003 nature documentary film that is a theatrical version of The Blue Planet. Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt are credited as directors, and six cinematographers are also credited. The film was premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain on 20 September 2003. It screened in more than 20 territories from 2003 to 2005 and grossed over $30 million at the box office.

Live concert tour [edit]

The Blue Planet was turned into a theatrical presentation entitled The Blue Planet Live! which toured the UK from 2006 to 2008. The UK live shows were presented by World Class Service Ltd. George Fenton conducted the Manchester Camerata Orchestra in Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham during December 2006, in three critically acclaimed shows. The tour continued in April 2007, again conducted by Fenton, in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and returning to Manchester and Nottingham.

For the show, some of the most spectacular sequences from the series have been edited together and are displayed on a huge screen (18 metres wide and 3 storeys high). The presentation is introduced by a special guest.

The tour continued in April 2008 with dates at Wembley Arena, Nottingham Arena, Manchester Central, Cardiff St. David's and Birmingham Symphony Hall.^[22]

The Blue Planet Live! continues to be staged:

• on 7 May 2010 at the Morsani Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida performed by the Florida Orchestra and conducted by Ward Stare.^[23]
• in July 2011 in the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia performed by the Russian National Orchestra, narrator Jane Pauley^[24]
• in June 2012 in Singapore performed by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra^[25]
• in December 2014 in Abu Dhabi at Corniche performed by the National Symphony Orchestra
• on 22 January 2015 in London at Royal Festival Hall, as a part of the Philharmonia at the Movies series.^[26]

Sequel [edit]

In February 2017, the BBC announced a seven-part sequel had been commissioned, titled Blue Planet II, with Sir David Attenborough returning as narrator and presenter.^[27] The sequel debuted on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC Earth channel on 29 October 2017.

Overseas [edit]

The series was sold to over 50 countries.^[28] In the United States, it was shown as The Blue Planet: Seas of Life with the episodes in a different order, the first one being retitled "Ocean World". The series was shown on the Discovery Channel and was narrated by Pierce Brosnan.

Awards and nominations [edit]

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
2002	Television Critics Association Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials	The Planet Earth	Nominated	[29]
	Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards	Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program	Doug Allan, Simon Carroll, Bob Cranston, Mike deGruy, Yuri Farrant, Tom Fitz, Mark Wolf, Simon King, Charles Maxwell, Ian McCarthy, Didier Noirot, Michael Pitts, Rick Rosenthal, Peter Scoones and Paul Stewart (for "Seas of Life: Ocean World")	Won	[30]
		Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)	George Fenton (for "Seas of Life: Ocean World")	Won
		Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program	Martin Elsbury (for "Ocean World")	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera)	Lucy Rutherford (for "The Deep")	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera)	Graham Wild (for "The Deep")	Nominated
	British Academy Television Awards	Best Factual Series or Strand	The Blue Planet	Won	[31]
		Innovation		Nominated
	British Academy Television Craft Awards	Best Original Music	George Fenton	Won	[32]
		Best Editing: Factual	Jo Payne, Tim Coope, Alan Hoida, Martin Elsbury	Nominated
		Best Photography: Factual	Camera Team	Won
		Best Sound: Factual	Sound Team	Nominated

Criticism [edit]

The series attracted some criticism when it was revealed that some of the footage was filmed at an aquarium in Wales. The series producer, Alastair Fothergill, said that around 2% of the whole series was filmed in tanks at aquariums.^{[33] [34]} A BBC spokesman argued that it would've been unethical to actually disturb the breeding process of wild lobsters for one of the scenes, which was why they made the decision to use the aquarium footage.^[33]

References [edit]

1. ^ From DVD cover
2. ^ "The Blue Planet homepage". BBC Online . Retrieved 1 April 2018.
3. ^ ^{a b c} "Awards for the Blue Planet (2001)". IMDb. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
4. ^ Holmes, Martha (2007). Making Waves (DVD). United Kingdom: BBC.
5. ^ "New ocean plankton species named after BBC's Blue Planet series". ucl.ac.uk. University College London. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
6. ^ Young, Jeremy R.; Bown, Paul R.; Cros, Lluisa; Hagino, Kyoko; Jordan, Richard W. (2018). "Syracosphaera azureaplaneta sp. nov. and revision of Syracosphaera corolla Lecal, 1966". Journal of Nannoplankton Research. 38 (1).
7. ^ "Weekly Top 30 Programmes". BARB. (data available for The Blue Planet broadcast weeks by searching archive)
8. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Introduction".
9. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, The Deep".
10. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Open Ocean".
11. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Frozen Seas".
12. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Seasonal Seas".
13. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Coral Seas".
14. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Tidal Seas".
15. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Coasts".
16. ^ "BBC Two - The Blue Planet, Deep Trouble".
17. ^ "BBC One - The Blue Planet, Making Waves".
18. ^ "Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Five-Disc DVD Special Edition)". Amazon.com . Retrieved 16 July 2010.
19. ^ "The Blue Planet: Seas of Life (Blu-ray)". Amazon.com.
20. ^ The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans (Hardcover). BBC Worldwide. ASIN 0563384980.
21. ^ The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans . DK. 2001. ISBN0789482657.
22. ^ "The Blue Planet Live". SMG World Class. Archived from the original on 30 March 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2009.
23. ^ "The Florida Orchestra performs 'The Blue Planet Live!' May 7 in Tampa". Tampa Bay Times . Retrieved 5 May 2010.
24. ^ "PECO Pops @ the Mann - The Blue Planet Live Russian National Orchestra - Broadcast Journalist Jane Pauley, narrator". The Mann Center for the Performing Arts. 27 July 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
25. ^ "The Blue Planet Live! Performed by Singapore Symphony Orchestra". SISTIC. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
26. ^ "The Blue Planet in Concert". Philharmonia Orchestra.
27. ^ "Sir David Attenborough to present Blue Planet II for BBC One". BBC. 20 February 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
28. ^ "The Blue Planet set for movie release". BBC Press Office. 3 March 2003.
29. ^ "2002 TCA Awards winners". Television Critics Association. 20 July 2002. Archived from the original on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
30. ^ Emmys.com list of 2002 Nominees & Winners
31. ^ "Television - 2002". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 1 April 2021.
32. ^ "Television Craft - 2002". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Retrieved 14 February 2021.
33. ^ ^{a b} "BBC defends indoor lobster footage". BBC News Online. 14 October 2001. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
34. ^ "FAKERY in Wildlife Documentaries". the fifth estate. CBC Television. 26 November 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2012.

External links [edit]

• The Blue Planet at BBC Online
• The Blue Planet at BBC Earth
• The Blue Planet at Hulu
• The Blue Planet on the Eden website
• Discovery Channel's Blue Planet homepage
• Simon King, Cameraman
• The Blue Planet at the BFI's Screenonline
• The Blue Planet at IMDb

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet

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