Europe: A Natural History
| Europe: A Natural History | |
|---|---|
Series title card from UK broadcast
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| Also known as | 'Wild Europe' |
| Genre | Nature documentary |
| Narrated by | Sean Pertwee |
| Composer(s) | Barnaby Taylor |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Mike Gunton Walter Köhler Reinhard Radke |
| Running time | 50 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
BBC Natural History Unit ZDF ORF |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Four |
| Picture format | 576i (16:9) |
| Audio format | Stereophonic |
| Original release | 15 February – 8 March 2005 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Wild Down Under |
| Followed by | Wild Caribbean |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Europe: A Natural History is a four-part BBC nature documentary series which looks at the events which have shaped the natural history and wildlife of the European continent over the past three billion years. It debuted on UK television on BBC Four in February 2005, and was repeated on BBC Two in September the same year. The series was broadcast in some other territories as Wild Europe.
The programmes featured extensive use of CGI to bring to life extinct species, and show how the European cities of today would have looked at various points in the past, when the climate was very different.
Europe: A Natural History was a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit and the public-service broadcasters of Germany and Austria, ZDF and ORF respectively. The executive producers were Walter Köhler, Mike Gunton and Reinhard Radke. The music was composed by Barnaby Taylor and performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra, and narration for the BBC broadcasts was provided by actor Sean Pertwee.
The series forms part of the Natural History Unit's "Continents" strand. It was preceded by Wild Down Under in 2003 and followed by Wild Caribbean in 2007.
Europe's natural history is the product of a complex history stretching back half a billion years. Its most ancient mountains, the Caledonites and Urals, were formed during the collision of continental plates from which modern Europe is assembled, described as "the first act of European union". During the Carboniferous period, Europe's equatorial jungles harboured giant predatory invertebrates, and the landmarks of Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin would have stood amid unbroken primeval forests. By 270 million years ago, Europe had drifted north and become part of the supercontinent Pangaea. The forests of the interior, cut off from life-giving rains, turned to desert, their remains forming the rich coal seams deposited in Europe's rocks. The Swiss Jura and other limestone regions are formed from the remains of marine creatures deposited as shallow seas evaporated. This was a time when reptiles ruled, and Oxford would have been roamed by dinosaurs. Rising sea levels triggered by a warming climate would have submerged much of Europe around 100 million years ago: only London's tallest buildings would have risen above the waves. The demise of the dinosaurs created opportunities for birds and mammals, evidence of whose ancestors has been unearthed at Messel pit. The subsequent break up of Pangaea, the birth of the Atlantic and Mediterranean and the creation of the Alps and Pyrenees were driven by tectonic forces which continue to this day in Iceland. The cyclic draining and flooding of the Mediterranean was the last geological act in the genesis of the continent.
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Wikipedia