In these three episodes, we'll see how life on the farm becomes more ambitious, more expensive, and much more unpredictable. A major new arrival promises to transform the future of the business, while unexpected births bring fresh challenges and moments of joy among the animals. As the livestock move out to pasture and new technology is introduced to improve daily operations, every success seems to be matched by a new obstacle. What begins as a season of optimism soon becomes a race against time, budgets, and the realities of modern farming. Meanwhile, Jeremy takes a crucial step into the cattle trade and discovers that turning farm produce into a profitable venture is far more complicated than expected. His long search for a pub finally appears to be reaching a breakthrough, but expert advice reveals a daunting list of costs, regulations, and risks that threaten to derail the entire project. With major financial decisions looming and pressure mounting from every direction, the dream of building something bigger than a farm hangs in the balance.
From the first flicker of life billions of years ago to the extraordinary diversity of animals alive today, Chris Packham embarks on an epic journey through evolution. Combining cutting-edge science, spectacular wildlife and vivid reconstructions of long-vanished creatures, he reveals how countless generations of innovation, adaptation and chance transformed simple cells into bodies capable of movement, reproduction, flight, intelligence and astonishing complexity. Along the way, familiar animals become gateways into some of the greatest mysteries in the history of life. In the first two episodes, Packham traces two remarkable evolutionary stories. In Kenya, he asks how a microscopic cell could ultimately give rise to the enormous, intelligent and highly social elephant, uncovering the crucial breakthroughs that made complex bodies, lungs, limbs and giant size possible. Then, in South Africa, the ostrich and its extraordinary egg open the door to the evolution of reproduction itself: From the origins of sex to the appearance of eggs, feathers and flight. Together, these episodes reveal that some of nature’s most spectacular creatures are the result of billions of years of unlikely experiments, lucky accidents and relentless adaptation.
Meanwhile, Jeremy takes a crucial step into the cattle trade and discovers that turning farm produce into a profitable venture is far more complicated than expected. His long search for a pub finally appears to be reaching a breakthrough, but expert advice reveals a daunting list of costs, regulations, and risks that threaten to derail the entire project. With major financial decisions looming and pressure mounting from every direction, the dream of building something bigger than a farm hangs in the balance.