In the final three episodes of the series, Chris Packham follows three extraordinary evolutionary journeys to discover how the relentless demands of survival transformed simple early animals into some of the most remarkable creatures alive today. In Borneo, the voracious appetite of the bat leads back more than half a billion years to the origins of the through-gut, the first anus, heads and jaws, revealing how the need to find and consume food helped reshape animal life and ultimately produced the bat’s extraordinary powers of hearing. In the Bahamas, the intelligence of dolphins opens an even deeper story: from ancient cells able to sense light to the evolution of eyes, complex brains, sophisticated senses and the remarkable minds of modern dolphins. The journey culminates with one of nature’s supreme athletes. Tracing the horse’s ancestry through hundreds of millions of years, Packham reveals how primitive muscle cells evolved into increasingly powerful systems for movement, how beating hearts supplied those muscles with oxygen, and how limbs became ever more effective tools for locomotion. Slithering, swimming, walking and running eventually converge in an animal built for extraordinary speed and endurance. Together, these final episodes reveal a breathtaking truth: hunger, perception and movement were not merely necessities of survival—they were powerful evolutionary forces that helped create the astonishing complexity of animal life.
A thrilling deep dive into the creative storm that brought a cultural phenomenon to life. This anniversary documentary explores the wild and often unpredictable journey behind Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece — from Peter Benchley’s novel to the birth of the modern blockbuster. Featuring rare outtakes, unearthed behind-the-scenes footage, and candid interviews, it reveals how a troubled production, a malfunctioning mechanical shark, and a visionary young director came together to ignite a worldwide obsession with the ocean’s most misunderstood predator. Both a tribute and a revelation, it offers the most definitive look yet at how cinematic history was made.
Follows the decade-long odyssey of big-wave pioneer Garrett McNamara who, after visiting Nazaré, a small fishing village in Portugal, helped push the sport beyond the realm of imagination. In the first episode, following a massive win at a competition at Maui's world-famous Jaws surf break in 2003, professional surfer Garrett McNamara comes out of retirement to pursue his lifelong dream of riding a 100-foot wave.
You will feel a lot more comfortable about going out for a swim or an afternoon boat ride knowing that such behemoths are extinct today!The Dunkleosteus is school bus-sized armored fish with razor sharp bladed jaws for cutting through anything in its path. The mighty Liopleurodon is a true monster, largest and most powerful of the Pliosaurs. The deadly Mosasaurs where the real sea serpents of their day, and some where large enough to dispatch an adult tyrannosaur easily.
There are 200 million insects for each of us. They are the most successful animal group ever. Their key is an armoured covering that takes on almost any shape. Darwin's stag beetle fights in the tree tops with huge curved jaws. The camera flies with millions of monarch butterflies which migrate 2000 miles, navigating by the sun. Super slow motion shows a bombardier beetle firing boiling liquid at enemies through a rotating nozzle. A honey bee army stings a raiding bear into submission. Grass cutter ants march like a Roman army, harvesting grass they cannot actually eat. They cultivate a fungus that breaks the grass down for them. Their giant colony is the closest thing in nature to the complexity of a human city.
Moving on to the Late Eocene period 36 million years ago and mammals have prospered and are now the largest creatures on land and sea. This is an era of animals like andrewsarchus, the biggest mammal carnivore ever to walk on land, and the brontotheres, small-brained herbivores. It is in the sea, however, that the most monstrous mammals of all can be found. We follow the fate of a female basilosaurus, a huge serpent-like early whale, but nothing like the gentle filter feeding whales of the 21st century. Four times the length of the great white shark, with jaws to match, she is every inch a killer.
The journey culminates with one of nature’s supreme athletes. Tracing the horse’s ancestry through hundreds of millions of years, Packham reveals how primitive muscle cells evolved into increasingly powerful systems for movement, how beating hearts supplied those muscles with oxygen, and how limbs became ever more effective tools for locomotion. Slithering, swimming, walking and running eventually converge in an animal built for extraordinary speed and endurance. Together, these final episodes reveal a breathtaking truth: hunger, perception and movement were not merely necessities of survival—they were powerful evolutionary forces that helped create the astonishing complexity of animal life.