Award-winning series Walking With Dinosaurs is to return to the BBC a quarter of a century after first being broadcast, the corporation has said.
The programme, originally narrated by Oscar-winning film-maker and actor Sir Kenneth Branagh, brought the reptiles to life for home audiences in a new way in 1999, recreating how they lived, ate and slept.
The natural history-style documentary, which included computer simulations of dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Stegosaurus, won multiple awards including Emmys, Baftas and a Peabody and was a ratings hit, with 13.2 million viewers watching the first episode.
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Each episode of the new six-part series will look at one individual dinosaur whose remains are being unearthed by palaeontologists, and will use “cutting-edge science” to show, through the latest visual effects, how they lived, hunted, fought and died.
Stories being told include that of the herbivore Lusotitan, which lived in Portugal, and would have been seeking a mate; the largest carnivorous dinosaur so far discovered, the Spinosaurus, found in Morocco; and a Triceratops in North America, which the programme will show trying to battle a Tyrannosaurus.
Jack Bootle, BBC head of commissioning at specialist factual, said: “A whole new generation of viewers is about to fall in love with Walking With Dinosaurs. The original series was one of the most exciting factual shows of all time, and this reinvention builds on that amazing legacy.
“Each episode is underpinned by the very latest science but is also filled with drama – making this a series for both dino lovers and people who just want to be told a great story.”
It is a BBC Studios production for the BBC and PBS, co-produced with ZDF and France Televisions.
Andrew Cohen, head of the BBC Studios science unit, said: “There is no bigger science series than Walking With Dinosaurs and we are incredibly excited to be bringing this much-loved brand to a whole new generation of audiences around the world.
“It’s the ultimate dinosaur show, where you’ll be hiding behind the sofa one moment and having your mind blown the next. The prehistoric world meets premium documentary production, like never before.”
– Walking With Dinosaurs will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in 2025.
