Otters are playful, adaptable and champion swimmers - they've captivated cameraman Charlie Hamilton James for the last 25 years. He's filmed them more than anyone else and now, through the eyes of three orphaned river otters, a set of groundbreaking experiments and some incredible wild encounters, Charlie wants to reveal their survival secrets and exactly why he believes they're so special.
Vultures are the birds that many people love to hate, but cameraman and naturalist Charlie Hamilton James sees them as beautiful and intelligent creatures that deserve respect. He believes that to appreciate them, people just need to spend time with them and he headed to East Africa to do exactly that. His journey exposes not only a softer, more caring side to these maligned birds but also a much bigger story, one that leaves vultures needing many more admirers.
In 1908, amateur naturalist and pioneering filmmaker Percy Smith stunned early cinema goers with his footage of the juggling fly. Hailed as the father of Natural History film, Smith was a hugely influential visual pioneer, inventing many techniques that are still used today. Being both a genius and an eccentric, we follow his life from his earliest films, to the collapse of his house from his mould experiment to his ultimate suicide. We also meet Natural History icon Sir David Attenborough, who was so amazed by Smith’s films in the 1930s that they inspired him to get into natural history.
The otter is one of the UK's most charismatic yet enigmatic animals. Living not only along our rivers but also at the coast, otters have remarkable adaptations to a life both in and out of water. This documentary brings you the very latest scientific discoveries as well as a review of the turbulent history of the otter in the UK. It looks like the otter is making a steady comeback around the country but not everybody agrees this is good news.
Charlie Hamilton James (born July 1973) is an English photographer, television cameraman and presenter, specialising in wildlife subjects. He started his career at 16, working on David Attenborough's The Trials of Life. His work has since been commissioned by National Geographic Magazine, the BBC's Springwatch/Autumnwatch shows and The Natural World.
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