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Planet Earth II

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Country of origin
  
United Kingdom

No. of episodes
  
7

Final episode date
  
1 January 2017

Presented by
  
David Attenborough

9.7/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Nature documentary

Original language(s)
  
English

First episode date
  
6 November 2016

Network
  
BBC One

Cast
  
David Attenborough

Planet Earth II wwwgstaticcomtvthumbtvbanners13442133p13442

Composer(s)
  
Hans Zimmer Jasha Klebe Jacob Shea

Executive producer(s)
  
Vanessa Berlowitz, Mike Gunton, James Brickell, Tom Hugh-Jones

Similar
  
Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, The Blue Planet, Natural World, Life

Planet earth ii official extended trailer bbc earth


Planet Earth II is a 2016 multinational nature documentary series produced by the BBC as a sequel to Planet Earth, which was broadcast in 2006. The series is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.

Contents

The first trailer was released on 9 October 2016, and the series premiered on 6 November 2016 in the United Kingdom on BBC One and BBC One HD. Planet Earth II is the first television series produced by the BBC in Ultra-high-definition (4K).

Planet earth ii trailer bbc one


Production

The series was announced by the BBC in 2013 with the working title One Planet, but the title was later changed to Planet Earth II.

The BBC trailer for the series used the same music featured in the trailer for the original Planet Earth, "Hoppípolla" by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós.

The original Planet Earth, airing in 2006, was one of the first natural documentary series to be made in high definition (HD) and Planet Earth II utilised new technologies developed since the first series, including ultra high definition (4K), improved camera stabilisation, remote recording and aerial drone technology.

British television

The premiere of Planet Earth II took place at Bristol's Cinema de Lux on 2 November 2016 with special guest appearance by Attenborough. Bristol has been the global home of BBC's Natural History programme making for almost 60 years. The series debuted on BBC One and BBC One HD the following Sunday (6 November) from 8pm to 9pm. Each of the six episodes included a 10-minute making-of documentary called Planet Earth II Diaries. The previous week's episode was repeated in an earlier time slot the following Sunday.

International

The series will broadcast internationally on BBC Earth channel, while there will be a few exceptions for some countries.

The series aired in Belgium on the Flemish channel Canvas, narrated in Flemish by Vic De Wachter, with episodes airing each Wednesday from 7 December 2016. In the Netherlands the series is airing on the Dutch channel NPO 1, narrated by Peter Drost, with episodes airing each Sunday from 1 January 2017.

In Japan, the series aired on NHK with its prologue and the first episode on 23 and 25 December 2016 respectively, while the rest of the episodes are scheduled to be broadcast in 2017.

In Australia, the series premiered on 15 February 2017 on the Nine Network.

The series debuted in Canada and the United States on 18 February 2017, with the Canadian broadcast on the local BBC Earth channel (which recently launched), In the United States, the series premiered with a three-network simulcast across BBC America, AMC, and SundanceTV (owned by AMC Networks, who manages BBC America on behalf of BBC Worldwide).

Episodes

The series comprises six episodes plus the compilation episode "A World of Wonder". Official episode viewing figures are from BARB. The first episode gained 12.26 million viewers in the United Kingdom, the highest under the current system of viewing figures for a nature documentary.

Reception

The Independent's Christopher Hooton said of the series: "It is undoubtedly the greatest TV nature documentary to date and there's a strong case for it being one of the best TV series full stop." Michael Hogan from The Telegraph compared this series to the original Planet Earth series and said that "advances in technology have enabled intimate high-definition close-ups and gasp-inducing aerial shots" and going on to say that "It has become predictable to heap superlatives upon the BBC Natural History Unit and wax lyrical about Attenborough’s status. But both institutions should be treasured while we’re lucky enough to still have them."

However, Martin Hughes-Games, while calling the series "spectacular and fascinating", said that it has "become a disaster for the world’s wildlife" and that while world animal populations are declining, "the producers [of this show] continue to go to the rapidly shrinking parks and reserves to make their films – creating a beautiful, beguiling fantasy world".

DVD and Blu-ray

The series was released as a two-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets on 5 December 2016, while a four-disc 4K UHD Blu-ray + Blu-ray sets will be released later on 13 March 2017. It was distributed by BBC Worldwide in the UK.

In the US and Canada, the DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu Ray sets are scheduled for release on 28 March 2017. It was distributed by BBC Warner.

Books

An accompanying hardback book was written by Steven Moss with a foreword by David Attenborough and published by BBC Books (ISBN 978-1849909655). It was released on 6 October 2016 in the UK, and on 15 February 2017 for the US release.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released with a compilation of the incidental music specially commissioned for Planet Earth II. The main theme was composed by Hans Zimmer, with the original music for each episode composed by Jacob Shea and Jasha Klebe for Bleeding Fingers Music. A digital soundtrack was released worldwide on 11 November 2016, while a two-disc soundtrack will be available on 2 December 2016 in the UK.

References

Planet Earth II Wikipedia