''Hidden Kingdoms'' is a British documentary television series that was first 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 ...

on 16 January 2014. The three-part series is narrated by

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

and shows how animals experience the world from their perspective. Animals shown include a

Rufous elephant shrew The rufous elephant shrew, rufous sengi or East African long-eared elephant-shrew (''Galegeeska rufescens'') is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. Found in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, its na ...

grasshopper mouse Grasshopper mice are rodents of the genus ''Onychomys'', occurring in North America. They feed on insects and other arthropods. Biology The three species in this genus of New World mice are only distantly related to the common house mouse, ''Mu ...

chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of subtribe Tamiina. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks are classified as four genera: '' ...

treeshrew The treeshrews (also called tree shrews or banxrings) are small mammals native to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They make up the entire order Scandentia (from Latin ''scandere'', "to climb"), which split into two families: the ...

marmoset The marmosets (), also known as zaris or sagoin, are twenty-two New World monkey species of the genera '' Callithrix'', '' Cebuella'', '' Callibella'', and ''Mico''. All four genera are part of the biological family Callitrichidae. The term ...

and Japanese rhinoceros beetle. In United States, the series was shown under the alternative title ''Mini Monsters'', which aired at

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

on 31 May 2014.

Production

Kim Shillinglaw Kim Danila Shillinglaw''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1969) is a British media executive and non-executive director. A former controller of BBC Two and BBC Four, head of science and natural history commissi ...

, the BBC's head of commissioning for natural history and science, announced the series on 21 November 2013. The following landscapes were used for the series:

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

desert A desert is a landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions create unique biomes and ecosystems. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About one-third of the la ...

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

and the metropolis of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

and

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. The

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

Mike Gunton Mike Gunton is a British television producer and a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit, the world's largest production unit dedicated to wildlife film-making. In November 2009 he became the Unit's first Creative Director. As Creativ ...

, senior executive of the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' T ...

, and produced by Mark Brownlow. ''Hidden Kingdoms'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

RTL Group RTL Group S.A. ("Radio Télévision Luxembourg") is a Luxembourg-based international media conglomerate, with another corporate office in Cologne, Germany. The company operates 56 television channels and 36 radio stations in Germany, France an ...

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

and

CCTV-9 CCTV-9 is a television channel operated by Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), broadcasting documentaries in Mandarin Chinese. It shared the name with CCTV's English language English is a West Germanic language that ...

co-production, in association with R.T.I S.p.A.

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

announced pre-sales for ''Hidden Kingdoms'' before the 2013 MIPCOM. The series has been licensed to

Network Ten Network 10 (commonly known as the 10 Network, Channel 10 or simply 10) is an Australian commercial television network. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global's Paramount Networks UK & Australia, UK & Australia division and is o ...

(Australia),

BBC Knowledge BBC Knowledge was a British television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 1 June 1999, broadcasting documentary, cultural and educational programmes. It was shut down permanently on 2 March 2002, and was replaced by BBC Four. ...

(South Africa),

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television aktiebolag, Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksd ...

(Sweden) and

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (, ; abbr. RÚV ) is Iceland's national public broadcasting, public-service broadcasting organization. Founded in 1930, it operates from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the count ...

(Iceland). BBC Worldwide also signed a deal with the

Korean Broadcasting System The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS; ) is the public broadcasting, national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters under the government of South Korea. The KBS ope ...

. On-screen warnings of re-enacted elements were shown in ''Hidden Kingdoms''. One of the scenes, featuring a mouse leaping to escape the jaws of a rattlesnake, was created by filming rattlesnakes making strikes at a hot towel placed above a camera, which was then merged with footage of the mouse.

Episode list

Reception

Overnight figures showed that the first episode on 16 January 2014 was watched by 14.4% of the viewing audience for that time, with 3.41 million watching it. The second and third episodes attracted 3.52m (15.5%) and 2.74m (12.4%) respectively. Some reviewers criticised the show's use of staged scenes and digital editing, stating that the depicted events and locations are "astonishing if true, but frustrating and worthless if merely a digital effect".

Home media

In United Kingdom, a single DVD disc was released on 27 January 2014 by

. In United States and Canada, DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on 8 July 2014. It was distributed by BBC Warner. In Germany, DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on 19 December 2014. In Japan, both DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released on 3 November 2015.

Soundtrack

The musical score and songs featured in the series were composed and conducted by Ben Foster, with the performed by the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

. The audio cd soundtrack was released on 11 March 2014, while digital soundtrack was available on 15 January 2016.

References

External links

* *
Hidden Kingdoms
' at

BBC Earth BBC Earth is a brand used by BBC Studios since 2009 to market and distribute the BBC's natural history content to countries other than the United Kingdom. BBC Studios is the commercial arm of the public service broadcaster. BBC Earth commercia ...

*
Mini Monsters
at

website * {{BBC Natural History Unit 2014 British television series debuts 2014 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series BBC television documentaries British English-language television shows Discovery Channel original programming