''The World About Us'' was a

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

television documentary Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

series on

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

which ran from 3 December 1967 to 20 July 1986.''Encyclopedia of Television'' (2nd edition), ed. Horace Newcomb, pp. 324, 620, 1363. The show was created by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

. The French marine scientist and photographer

Jacques Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the ...

made a documentary for the series, starting in 1968 with '' The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau''. The series also featured

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

, again in 1968 and was narrated by

Desmond Morris Desmond John Morris FLS ''hon. caus.'' (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book ''The Naked Ape'', and for his televis ...

. While Goodall was noted for her work with chimpanzees, the series also featured her work with wild African dogs in a 1973 episode. Morris's work "Manwatching" was the subject of an episode in 1977. An episode narrated by

Wilfred Thesiger Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (3 June 1910 – 24 August 2003), also known as Mubarak bin Landan (, ''the blessed one of London'') was a British military officer, explorer, and writer. Thesiger's travel books include '' Arabian Sands'' (1959), ...

about his journey through, and his love for, the "Empty Quarter" desert won several awards in 1968 (Trento International Film Festival 1967, Melbourne Film Festival 1968, International Addis Ababa Film Festival 1968). The 400th edition was broadcast on 29 August 1976 and the series continued into the late 1980s. The series marked the evolution of natural-history broadcasting "to the point at which constantly improving photographic techniques, allied to a seemingly inexhaustible supply of subject matter," make recurring series possible. The series is considered a precursor to '' Life on Earth'' (1979), a highly acclaimed BBC natural-history documentary series also presented by Attenborough. The title sequence was created by Bernard Lodge with music by Johnny Scott; it was parodied in two '' Look Around You'' fictional schedule sketches as ''Tlentifini Maarhaysu''.

Notes

External links

''The World About Us''
website from

''BBC Genome Project - The World About Us''
website from

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 ...

* 1967 British television series debuts 1986 British television series endings 1960s British documentary television series 1970s British documentary television series 1980s British documentary television series BBC television documentaries Discovery Channel original programming Documentary films about nature British English-language television shows {{UK-tv-prog-stub

See also

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