Oceans (NHU) 6x60, BBC One, Executive Producer James Honeyborne
In 2001, the BBC led the world with the multi award-winning Blue Planet; now it plans to return to the planets oceans. More marine species have been discovered in the past decade than ever before, with an average of 2,000 discoveries per year.
Since Blue Planet, 250,000 new species have been identified in the oceans, including the bizarre-looking blanket octopus the first live male was discovered, which is 300 times smaller and 40,000 lighter than the female; the alarmingly hairy yeti crab discovered near Easter Island; and the velvet belly lanternshark that uses a light-sabre-style glowing spine to defeat its enemies. Scientists are also uncovering new behaviours - such as dolphins that outwit their prey using empty shells as fish traps - and new locations, such as the worlds biggest volcano, just discovered off the coast of Japan; giant underwater waterfalls in Norway; and submerged forests of perfectly preserved ghostly trees.
Drawing on new filming techniques not available at the time Blue Planet was shot - such as a new gyro-stabilised aerial camera system, remotely operated submarines, 4k digital resolution and new marine tracking techniques - we will capture the marvels of the worlds largest living space.
One Planet (NHU) 6x60, BBC One, Executive Producer Vanessa Berlowitz
A decade on from Planet Earth, it's time for a new experience...
One Planet is a series of spellbinding adventures that introduces viewers to the rules of the game of life as it plays out across Earth's great wildlife arenas. From mountains to deserts, wild islands to man-made cities, each episode selects the most spectacular scenes and stories from around the globe to create the ultimate tour of an iconic ecosystem.
During these immersive journeys of discovery, the viewers experience the physical rules and mighty forces that govern each arena as if through the eyes of the creatures that live there. Groundbreaking filming techniques unite the canopies of the planet's rain forests or the frozen summits of its tallest peaks in a continuous or ''limitless' zoom. Along the way, viewers discover the amazing adaptations that animals and plants have evolved in response to each arena - seeds, squirrels, frogs, lizards, even snakes have all solved the need for flight between rainforest trees but in remarkably different ways. For the first time, a landmark series puts the remarkable diversity of life into the context of its dynamic arenas. And the reveal? You must dare to be different if you want to keep one step ahead on an ever-changing planet...
The Hunt (Silverback) 7x60, BBC One, Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill
The Hunt takes a totally fresh look at the most dramatic behaviour in nature: the competition between predators and their prey. Across the globe, predators face unique challenges wherever they live, and these different challenges drive the narrative of each episode. Using character-driven stories, the series will dissect the clever and complex strategies predators use to catch their prey, showing viewers how these are some of the hardest working animals in the natural world. Sequences with some of the planet's top predators include polar bears filmed hunting bearded seals for the very first time, using a fascinating aquatic stalking technique; golden eagles and wolves working together to capture mountain lambs high in the Rocky mountains; and a breathtaking hunt where a pack of killer whales chase a humpbacked whale calf for two hours.
Alaska, Japan, Patagonia, New Zealand (NHU) 12x60, BBC Two, Executive Producer James Honeyborne
Four iconic corners of the globe, each stunningly photographed, with a very different story to tell in four trilogies.
Alaska is one of the most seasonal places on Earth, where every living thing - both wildlife and people - must cope with extremes of heat and cold, darkness and light. Viewers will discover the characters of Americas final frontier, with all its huge landscapes, romance and brutality, and reveal their stories of life on the edge.
In Japan, one of the most modern, crowded, urbanised nations on Earth, wildlife and human culture are closely entwined like nowhere else. The very landscapes exquisitely beautiful and unpredictably violent - dictate all their lives.
Patagonia is all about strangeness and is one of the ultimate lands of mystery windswept, very remote, and with unusual wildlife grown up over thousands of years, and not always comfortably.
In a joint initiative with NDR, New Zealand is the Great Experiment an island where nature thrived bizarre and undisturbed for 80 million years. The most recently settled land on Earth still has the most astonishing selection of unique life, but now the experiment continues under the influence of people, and the raft of new animals they brought in.
Countdown To The Rains (Tigress) 3x60, BBC Two, Executive Producer Dick Colthurst
Countdown To The Rains is a fast turnaround series shot and transmitted at one of the most dramatic and important moments in the calendar of the natural world: the moment the African dry season ends.
More than 75 cameras (The Super Bowl 2013 had 62) will cover everything that happens along a one-mile stretch of African river in the South Luangwa National Park, recognised as one of the richest wildlife areas on Earth.
2013 has been the hottest dry season in Africa anyone can remember. The Luangwa River is barely flowing. The vast herds of elephant, buffalo, hippo, antelope, giraffe and zebra that live here are struggling to find anything to eat. For the predators, its the complete opposite. The lions, leopards, crocodiles, hyena and wild dogs are in peak condition and ambushing prey at will. But when the rains come in the autumn, the tables are turned and the greatest power struggles of all play out across a three-week period with the cameras there to bear witness.
