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The Blue Planet




''The Blue Planet'' is a Discovery Channel / BBC Natural History Unit co-produced Television Series subtitled "''A Natural History of the Ocean s''", comprising eight episodes, narrated by David Attenborough , originally transmitted in September/ October 2001 . The project cost about £ 7 million. Over 12 million people watched the series when it first aired on BBC One in the UK and it regularly achieved an audience share of over 30%. It has since been sold to over fifty countries. The screening was therapeutic to many, the first episode being broadcast the day after the September 11 Terrorist Attacks . The soundtrack music is by George Fenton .

The underwater photography set new standards, both for its beauty and for never-before-photographed sequences of ocean life. Recently discovered species were shown for the first time, and behaviour that had hitherto never been witnessed was captured on film.

The individual episodes are:

# "The Blue Planet"
# "Frozen Seas"
# "Open Ocean"
# "The Deep"
# "Seasonal Seas"
# "Coral Seas"
# "Tidal Seas"
# "Coasts"

Each programme was just under 50 minutes, recorded in with Stereo sound.

There was an accompanying book.

A theatrical release called ''Deep Blue'' was released which consisted entirely of re-edited footage shot for ''The Blue Planet'', accompanied by narration from Michael Gambon .

David Attenborough narrated this series just prior to presenting the next in his 'Life' series of programmes, '' The Life Of Mammals '' ( 2002 ).

The same production team, led by Alastair Fothergill, went on to produce another major '' ( 2006 ).


DVDS

The series is available as a 3-disc DVD set, including three additional programmes:
  • ''Making Waves'': the making of ''The Blue Planet'' (50 mins)

  • ''Deep Trouble'': an ecological documentary (50 mins)

  • ''Blue'': a five-minute theatrical short


In addition, there are interviews with the production team and a photo gallery.

A ''special edition'' DVD features three new programmes:
  • ''The Abyss''

  • ''Dive To Shark Volcano''

  • ''Amazon Abyss''



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