The Blue Planet is a Discovery Channel/BBC Natural History Unit co-produced television series subtitled "a natural history of the oceans", consisting of eight episodes, presented by David Attenborough, originally transmitted in September/ October 2001. The project cost about £7 million. Over 12 million people watched The Blue Planet when it first aired on BBC1 in the UK and it regularly achieved an audience share of over 30%. The Blue planet has since been sold to over fifty countries. The screening was therapuetic to many, being broadcast at a time when news channels reflecting the human world, rather than the serene, underwater natural world, were full of the political turmoil and death and destruction of the September 11 Terrorist Attacks.

The underwater photography set new standards, both for its beauty and for never-before-photographed sequences of ocean life. The soundtrack music is by George Fenton. Recently-discovered species were photographed for the first time, and never-before witnessed behavior was captured in the series' sequences.

The individual episodes are:

1. The Blue Planet
2. The Deep
3. Open Ocean
4. Frozen Seas
5. Seasonal Seas
6. Coral Seas
7. Tidal Seas
8. Coasts

Each episode was just under 50 minutes long, recorded in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio with stereo sound.

There was an accompanying book, and the series is available as a three- disc DVD set, including three additional programmes:

• Making Waves (the making of The Blue Planet; ~50 mins)
• Deep Trouble (ecological documentary; ~50 mins)
• Blue (a five- minute theatrical short) plus interviews with the prduction team and a photo gallery.

External links

• BBC's Blue Planet (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/programmes/tv/blueplanet/)