BBC faked dramatic whale hunting scene
Broadcaster admits footage was inaccurate and withdraws its landmark ‘Human Planet’ series
THE BBC has withdrawn Human Planet, one of its landmark natural history series, after admitting that it faked scenes of a hunter harpooning a whale.
Less than a month after the series was found to have staged the story of a tribe making its home in a rainforest canopy, it has been exposed once more in a different corner of the world.
The opening episode of the 2011 programme followed a young man from the Indonesian village of Lamalera as he joined a whale hunt.
The hunter, named Benjamin Blikololong, was shown leaping into the water while clutching a harpoon. A voice-over provided by John Hurt told viewers that Blikololong “struck the decisive blow” to kill a sperm whale – a rite of passage for young men of the tribe – and received a greater share of the whale meat afterwards as a reward for his bravery.
But a US journalist who had spent three years with the tribe contacted the BBC last week to say Blikololong had told him that his role had been faked and he did not spear the whale.
The BBC said it had pulled the series from Netflix and elsewhere and will now conduct an “editorial review”, going through each episode for other potential breaches.
In a statement, the corporation said: “The BBC has been alerted to a further editorial breach in the Human Planet series from 2011.
“In episode one a Lamaleran hunter is shown supposedly harpooning a whale. On review, the BBC does not consider that the portrayal of his role was accurate, although the sequence does reflect how they hunt whales.
“The BBC has decided to withdraw Human Planet from distribution for a full editorial review.
“Since this programme was broadcast in 2011, we have strengthened training for the Natural History Unit in editorial guidelines, standards and values.”
A source said the sequence breached accuracy guidelines because it misled audiences into thinking Blikololong had speared the whale when he had not.
In all, Human Planet has been beset by four fakery stories.
In 2015, the corporation admitted that it had used a semi-domesticated wolf in one episode because the crew were unable to find a wild one.
And shots of a tarantula, purporting to be taken in the Venezuelan jungle, were actually taken in a studio.
At the beginning of this month, it was revealed that a 140ft-high treehouse, said to be a home to the Korowai people in Papua New Guinea, was built for the benefit of the cameras. The truth was uncovered when another BBC series, My Year With The Tribe, began filming in the village and explained that the house had been “commissioned” by the previous crew.
BBC sources said no action has been taken against members of the Human Planet team, some of whom still work for the Natural History Unit. The series was nominated for five Baftas, winning one, and also won an Emmy for outstanding cinematography.