CHICK-NAPPED!

The penguins episode was the most challenging of all the long and difficult film shoots for Dynasties. The crew were there filming for nearly 11 months. Executive producer Mike Gunton explains, ‘If somebody had fallen ill, we would’ve been undone, as we couldn’t have got anybody in or out for eight months, such is the Antarctic weather.

‘The crews could only film for, say, 40 minutes before the camera shut down because of the cold. The film crew recorded a video diary, but people could barely speak for the cold. Their eyelashes were covered in ice.

‘But despite the terrible conditions, the team became attached to the place. Our cameraman, Lindsay McCrae, cried when he left, even though he had a six-and-a-half-month-old baby waiting for him at home. He said, “I’m desperate to get home but I don’t want to leave.” After 11 months, the Antarctic just gets under your skin.’

The penguins appreciated their human visitors too. Emperor penguins are inquisitive birds, without much visual variety in their habitat, so anything different – including the team’s skidoos – would draw their attention.

Camera assistant

Stefan Christmann, a young German naturalist and photographer, recalls the first time the team caught sight of the birds.

‘When we arrived at the edge of the ice shelf, we could hear the calls of the emperor penguins. Not just a single call but hundreds in unison, mixed into what many people might describe as a cacophony.’

For Stefan, the sound was both haunting and beautiful. ‘The trumpet-like sounds are like music. A euphony of unique melodies!’

On 21 May, the ‘polar night’ began. For the next eight weeks, the sun would not rise at all, with just a couple of hours of twilight each day to film in, using special light-sensitive cameras. The lack of light – along with wind-chill bringing the temperature to below -50°C – made it nearly impossible.

Thanks to patience and tenacity, the team were able to film extraordinary scenes. They watched as one penguin pair with a healthy chick began passing their baby from the male to female, so she could feed it with regurgitated fish and squid. As they began, a group of unpaired birds, desperate for a chick of their own, descended on them and tried to grab the helpless chick. ‘The chick was scrambling to find safety, with the kidnappers’ beaks coming down like spears. It was harrowing,’ director Will Lawson recalls. ‘Only a few days old, this chick was fighting for its life.’ A few moments later, this scrum of birds separated to reveal the parents facing one another, pouches empty. A few feet away, the kidnapper unfurled its pouch to reveal the rattled chick and shuffled away. It revealed a very different, almost sinister, side to colony life.

After two weeks, the chicks can be exposed a little and they begin to get to know each other

A male shows off his chick as another waits for his to hatch

Penguins dive into the sea for months, then return to breed once again