''Dynasties'' is a 2018 British

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or television documentary, series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's nat ...

series on five vulnerable or

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

species known to form enduring populations:

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

emperor penguin The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is Endemism in birds, endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing fr ...

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...

and African wild dog. The series is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and narrated by David Attenborough. The music score was composed by Benji Merrison. Each episode ends with ''Dynasties On Location'', a behind the scenes look at the planning of each episode, which could be years in advance before production crew even started filming. The series debut was on 11 November 2018 simultaneously broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

, BBC One HD and BBC Earth, and premiered on the same day in Asia. The series debuts in the U.S. as a four-network simulcast (BBC America, AMC, IFC, and Sundance) on 19 January 2019, and in New Zealand on TVNZ 1 on 20 January 2019 (NZDT), with all 5 episodes available on TVNZ On Demand. A sequel series named '' Dynasties II'' aired in 2022 consisting of four episodes.

Episodes

Viewing data sourced from BARB.

Merchandise

Home media

The series was released as a two-disc DVD set as well as a standard

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

set on 3 December 2018, and as a four-disc 4K UHD Blu-ray + Blu-ray set on 10 December 2018. Media is distributed by

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

in the UK.

Book

An accompanying hardback book was written by Steven Moss with a foreword by David Attenborough. It is published by BBC Books () and released on 25 October 2018 in the UK. The book
Painted Wolves: A Wild Dog's Life
' by Nicholas Dyer and Peter Blinston is a large-format coffee-table book that charts the lives and fortunes of the same packs of painted wolves featured in BBC Dynasties. It is published by Lycaon Ventures ().

Soundtrack

The musical score and songs featured in the series were composed by Benji Merrison and Will Slater. A digital soundtrack was released on 11 November 2018, while a two physical disc will be released on 14 December 2018 in the UK.

Sequel

On 28 December 2020, on the same day that a Christmas special following a meerkat family was broadcast, it was announced that the BBC would be creating a sequel to ''Dynasties'' named ''Dynasties II''. This series aired in 2022 and consisted of four episodes, following Angelina the

African elephant African elephants are members of the genus ''Loxodonta'' comprising two living elephant species, the African bush elephant (''L. africana'') and the smaller African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''). Both are social herbivores with grey skin. ...

matriarch, she-cheetah Kali, Rupestre the puma and

spotted hyena The spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus ''Crocuta'', native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUC ...

matriarch Suma.

References

External links

* *
Dynasties
' at BBC Earth *
Dynasties
' at BBC Media Centre * {{David Attenborough 2018 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series 2020s British documentary television series David Attenborough BBC Earth (TV channel) original programming Documentary films about nature BBC high definition shows BBC television documentaries British English-language television shows Television series by BBC Studios BBC One original programming