Planet

The BBC’s natural history unit appear to have done it again with Blue Planet III and David Attenborough once again telling incredible stories from our oceans

The new natural history series Blue Planet III with David Attenborough has taken four years to create – but it looks worth the wait.

It will build on the groundbreaking legacy of the previous two BBC series, redefining underwater wildlife film-making and telling untold stories and allowing us to see our oceans like never before.

The series will launch in the coming weeks, and follows on from Blue Planet II in 2017 which galvanised a global movement to rid our oceans of single use plastic. After invited guests were given a first glimpse of some scenes, the BBC released a trailer for the TV show.

Sir David, who turned 100 earlier this year, sent a recorded message to the launch event and said: “Twenty-five years ago, when I narrated the first Blue Planet series it didn’t occur to me that I would be narrating a third series in my centennial year. The ocean is an endlessly fascinating place.

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“In these new programmes we uncover a further wonderful array of under-water life, which is more surprising, more sophisticated and even more important than we ever realised. I am proud and delighted to be associated with Blue Planet III.”

The six part series will show remarkable marine wildlife alongside Sir David’s astonishing storytelling. The highly anticipated series was a project Sir David said he was “proud and delighted” to be associated with.

The new series is accompanied by an original score from Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music along with an original song, Into The Deep (Seas Cry) co-written by Jade, which features in the trailer.

Zimmer, who also scored Blue Planet II, said the series was the “most important work” he has ever done.

He said: “I’ve worked on a lot of films throughout my career, but nothing affects humanity, our world and our planet as much as the work being done by the Natural History Unit in Bristol.

“I think everybody who comes to Blue Planet comes to it with the knowledge that it is something that changes the world by making you fall in love with the world.

“It’s not something where you’re being lectured or cajoled about things but it’s something that just shows you how spectacular and beautiful our world truly is and how we need to preserve it and how we need to love it and how whatever we love we need to treat with great kindness and great respect.”

Jade, born Jade Thirlwall and best known for being a member of the pop group Little Mix, said she was a “huge fan” of the franchise and praised Sir David as being “a true hero” of hers.

* The six-part series Blue Planet III will air on the BBC later this autumn.

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AN island in the UK is soon to close for the season – and won’t reopen until next year.

Ulva is home to just 16 people – but saw an ‘unprecedented’ increase in visitors over the summer thanks to its beautiful landscape, wildlife, and a new TV show.

Found in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, you can only reach it via a small passenger ferry from the Isle of Mull which has daily crossings.

However, Ulva will close to visitors completely on October 31.

The island is open seasonally with people able to visit between Easter and the October – however it did have a change in its schedule this year.

Ulva saw a surge of popularity after the airing of a BBC series called Banjo and Ro’s Grand Island Hotel.

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The show followed interior designer Banjo Beale and his husband Ro Christopher who are in the process of redeveloping a stately manor into a boutique hotel – which is set to open next year.

As a result, the island became significantly busier during spring and summer.

The Ulva Ferry team said: “If you’ve visited us already this year, you’ll have noticed how much busier things have been.”

It added: “None of us could have predicted how significant the increase in the numbers of visitors would be.”

Due to the sudden demand, the ferry announced it would close on Sundays over the summer to give islanders “the chance to recharge.”

Banjo and Ro already run The Boathouse on Ulva, a restaurant where visitors can pick up a coffee or local fish dishes.

The island is car-free island with cliffs, moorlands, woodland as well as quiet beaches and bays.

Talking to Sun Travel about the island, Banjo described it as “another world” thanks to its beautiful landscape, and there’s plenty of wildlife to spot too.

Banjo told us: “We’ve got otters, dolphins and seals swimming by, and one ferry you can take from Ulva is called Turus Mara which goes to the Treshnish Isles, it’s home to puffins.

“Often we go there for a puffin picnic just to sit with them, that’s one of our favourite things to do.

“There are more cows than people too so you’re likely to see a lot of them. And you’ve got a great chance of seeing the Northern Lights when the sun goes down.”

After composing the score for the BBC’s Trials of Life in 1990, Fenton went on to create the music for what became known as David Attenborough’s Earth Trilogy: The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.

Fenton’s music perfectly complemented the stunning visuals of the ocean’s depths and the polar ice caps, adding an emotional weight to the narrative, using the full might of the orchestra to evoke everything from wonder and awe to tension and suspense.

Following the success of the documentaries, Fenton created a show – The Blue Planet in Concert – which has been performed by leading orchestras in venues around the world.

Among his other well-known soundtracks were The Long Walk Home, You’ve Got Mail, Sweet Home Alabama, The Lady In The Van and Mrs Henderson Presents.

Fenton also scored more films for British director Ken Loach than any other composer.

Their 18 collaborations included Ladybird, Ladybird; I, Daniel Blake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

He also founded the Association of Professional Composers, which later merged with The Ivors Academy; and he is one of only a handful of musicians to receive the Academy’s fellowship, alongside Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John, Kate Bush, Bruce Springsteen and George Michael.

In addition, Fenton was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music and the University of Nottingham. He was made a CBE for services to music in 2023.

The composer often said that his musical career had been an accident, but nothing gave him greater joy than seeing his work come to life.

On his episode of Desert Island Discs, Fenton chose one of his own compositions – Reunion, from the soundtrack to the movie Accidental Hero – as it reminded him of watching pianist John Lowe play the melody in the studio.

“If I was sitting on a desert island and thinking about what a good time I’d had writing music, which I have, I want just one thing to remind me about the best part – which is the fact that you write something and then you’re so surprised and thrilled at the way it’s played,” he told Sue Lawley.

“For a composer, that’s the biggest kick you can get.”