My Tiger Family With Valmik Thapar

For BBC, Thirteen Nature PBS & Path

Premieres on Monday 12th August BBC at 9pm

An epic fifty-year story of an Indian tiger clan and its five most charismatic and powerful tigresses, who have revealed more about the lives of tigers than anyone thought possible. Their home is Ranthambhore, a magical, Disneyesque Rajasthan landscape dominated by a huge ancient fort and three crocodile-filled lakes teeming with tiger prey. One passionate man, Valmik Thapar, has dedicated his life to following the big cats, witnessing the most remarkable tiger behaviour ever seen and filmed.

In the early 1970s, Ranthambhore's tigers were nearly wiped out. Just in time, a hunting ban and new conservation efforts saved the last few survivors. That ’s when Valmik Thapar began his incredible journey, witnessing astonishing tiger behaviours and the brutal reality of poaching. He fought fiercely in the political arena to protect these majestic creatures. This is the thrilling story of how Ranthambhore's tigers were saved from the brink of extinction and began to thrive once more.

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Attenborough's Wonder of Song for BBC and PBS

Directors Beth Jones and Mike Birkhead

Premiered on BBC1 3rd January 2022

Sir David Attenborough chooses his favourite recordings from the natural world that have revolutionised our understanding of song. Each one - from the song of the largest lemur to the song of the humpback whale to the song of the lyrebird - was recorded in his lifetime. The oldest, when he was just five. The most recent, only a few years ago. And one was made by him. "There are seven recordings of song that have particular interest for me," he says. "Some are lovely, some are surprising and one almost broke my heart. But all of them broke new ground".

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Attenborough's Wonder of Eggs

Mike Birkhead Associates for BBC Two
Directors: Mike Birkhead, Beth Jones

Premiered on BBC2 on the 31st March 2018

David Attenborough reveals what lies behind nature's most perfect thing: the bird's egg. It's a remarkable structure that protects a new life from the outside world at the same time as allowing it to breathe. It is strong enough to withstand the full weight of an incubating parent and weak enough to allow the chick to break free. But how is an egg constructed? And perhaps more importantly, why is it that way? In this programme, we follow an egg from its creation to the moment when life breaks out of it.

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H is for Hawk: A New Chapter

Mike Birkhead Associates for BBC Two and PBS
Directors: Mike Birkhead, Beth Jones

A new exciting film with author Helen Macdonald

After the unexpected death of her father, Helen Macdonald was almost torn apart by grief. Shutting herself away from her family and friends, she decided to train a goshawk: the fiercest of all Britain's birds of prey. Her record of this time became an international bestselling book H is for Hawk. A decade on from her father's death, and years since her hawk Mabel died, Helen has decided she is ready to return to the world of goshawks once more and is attempting to train a new goshawk, her first since Mabel.

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Badlands

A film for Terra Mater and Smithsonian

In the heart of the American Midwest lies a spectacular landscape – the Badlands. At first glance, this natural wonder seems ravaged and barren – a hostile place to live.

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Ostrich - A Life On The Run

A programme for Terra Mater and National Geographic

The ostriches of Namibia face an annual challenge: choosing the exactly the right moment to breed. The birds must ensure their clutches hatch around the time of the rains. If the timing is wrong, food will be scarce and the chicks will die. If it’s right, then a new generation gets the chance of a life on the run.

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Attenborough's Big Birds

For BBC Natural World and PBS/Nature

Premieres on Tuesday the 16th of June at 8pm on BBC Two

David Attenborough tells a gripping tale of bizarre birds, dedicated dads, enormous eggs and a giant, curly penis. It's the story of a family of modern-day flightless dinosaurs - the Flintstones of the bird world.

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Wild Sri Lanka

For Terra Mater

3 x 50 min programmes to be shown on National Geographic and ServusTV

Nowhere else on earth is the power of water to create, shape and sustain life so dazzlingly evident as on the tiny oceanic island of Sri Lanka. Rising from the waves, it is a land where not one, but two monsoons mark time. A world where rains pour down, clouds swell, rivers flow, mists dance across the skies, frosts dust the highlands and thousands of man-made lakes form a curious wonderland filled with a wildlife that is strange, beautiful and utterly unique. In this series we will delve into the land of these breathtaking creatures – from the largest mammal on earth, the blue whale, to the smallest, the etruscan shrew – and discover how, from the moment Sri Lanka fractured from the southern supercontinent of Gondwanaland and was carried by the oceans to its present home – it has been an island which has been ruled by one unstoppable force: water.

Until recently, a quarter of a century of civil war isolated Sri Lanka's wildlife from the world. But now that war is over and Sri Lanka's once-troubled waters are parting to reveal unseen ecological riches for the very first time.

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Sri Lanka: Elephant Island

BBC2 9pm Friday 9th August 2013

Sri Lanka, the tropical island lying off the southern coast of India, is home to its own special elephants. A sub species of the Asian elephant, they have their own unique characteristics. In this programme, award winning wildlife cameraman Martyn Colbeck of Echo of the Elephants fame travels to Sri Lanka to try and get to know them.

Martyn has planned his arrival to coincide with the start of the monsoon, hoping it will be the best time to find and follow a new born calf. By drawing on local knowledge, Martyn begins to unravel the complex social world of Sri Lanka's elephants - he witnesses a fight over a calf, a battle between two bulls in musk and, at an elephant sanctuary, befriends an orphaned elephant who sadly lost a leg to a snare and is facing an uncertain future.

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Namibia Desert Kingdom

For Terra Mater

Nominated for Best Photography @ Jackson Hole Film Festival 2013

Some people call this the "The Land God made in Anger", while others named it "The Gates of Hell". Sand dunes a thousand feet high, shimmering mirages, scorching temperatures - the deserts of Namibia in South West Africa. Although this place looks totally inhospitable there is a remarkable diversity of life found in the sand rivers that bisect the desert dunes.

This film tells remarkable story of how Namibia's vast desert was formed over eons from the ground sediment of the Orange River in the south of Namibia. Despite the seemingly barren land a surprisingly rich variety of life can be found here from huge desert elephants to herds of oryx, tiny meerkats and vast flocks of sandgrouse. All this prey attracts impressive prides of lions, secretive caracals a several species of desert falcons and cape foxes. Made by the multi award winning team of cameraman/director Martyn Colbeck and producer directed Mike Birkhead this is one of the most beautiful films ever produced on Namibia's Deserts.

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Siberian Tiger Quest

Made with PBS and Terra Mater

Multiple award winner including Emmy Nomination

Hunted almost to extinction, the last wild Siberian tigers can only be found in the forests of the far eastern Russian frontier—but not easily. Ecologist Chris Morgan embarks on a challenge that will fulfill a lifelong dream — to find and film a Siberian tiger living wild and free in Russia's far eastern forests.

To help him, Morgan turns to Korean filmmaker Sooyong Park, the first individual ever to film Siberian tigers in the wild. Park spent more than five years watching and waiting for a glimpse of the elusive creatures, confined sometimes for months in tiny underground pits or 15-foot hides in trees. His technique was unconventional, but produced more than a thousand hours of wild tiger footage that told the story of a three-generation tiger dynasty.

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Queen of Tigers

Premiered 19th October 2012 on BBC2

Winner at Japan Wildlife Film Festival 2013

The most famous tiger in the world is a natural fighter and a loving mother. She rules Ranthambhore, the most spectacular tiger territory in India. Colin Stafford-Johnson has filmed Machli's whole life. Now, 14 years on, he wants to see his old friend for perhaps the last time to complete the story of her dynasty on the lakes.

See clips on the BBC website, or watch again on iPlayer.

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