Mike Gunton on ‘Planet Earth III’: ‘A cautionary tale and an expression of hope’

Executive producer Mike Gunton says PE III tries to show the natural world in a modern way —  the wonders as well as the touch points where humanity and animals come into contact

At a time when screens are getting smaller, the breath-taking images at BBC’s Planet Earth III premiere in London were beamed on gigantic screens around the room, giving an immersive experience. One almost felt one was in the scorching Namib Desert or in the ocean swimming with the coldly grinning sharks.

The wide-screen experience, according to executive producer Mike Gunton, was driven by the fact that people made it a point to watch earlier seasons of Planet Earth on as big a screen as possible. “People would get together for a Planet Earth party. There was something about Planet Earth that brought people together. The event last night is probably about as big a screen as you can manage.” There is not much television, Mike says, that one is compelled to watch on a large screen. “If there are any shows, then PE III will be the one.”

Choosing a defining image of PE III is a big ask, Mike, who is a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit, says. “David Attenborough walking in exactly the same location that Charles Darwin walked 200 years ago when Darwin was coming up with his theory of evolution is one of the defining moments on the show. David saying ‘we’re now going to talk about what the planet is like 200 years later’ puts it in perspective.”

In terms of the animals, that moment where the male ostrich turns upon hearing the sound of his lost baby generates an extraordinary emotion.” Mike chooses two more images. “One is the rhino in Nepal. You realise a wild rhinoceros is walking down a city street, completely oblivious, going from where it used to feed to where it wants to feed with somebody having built a town in its path. The second is at the end of the ‘Extremes’ episode. A snow leopard and its family are on top of a pinnacle in the Gobi Desert and David says, ‘this is Planet Earth as you may never see it again’. The combination of those words and that image is pretty strong.”

The third season of the Nature documentary is both a cautionary tale and an expression of hope, Mike says. “There has to be hope, because without hope, nothing will happen. It’s not a fable as we are trying to be as truthful as possible. There was an opportunity to do more than just show the wonders of Nature.”

Not wanting to do a compare and contrast, (isn’t this wonderful? Isn’t this terrible?), Mike says they chose the contextualised, nuanced route.

“Humanity is a powerful force, and we have our own survival to look after as well. We’re not going to go back to the Stone Age. PE III is trying to show the natural world in a modern way. We show the wonders and also the touch points where humanity and animals come into contact.”