2. The filmmakers were hesitant to take it on

Martha Holmes, a Bafta Award-winning BBC Television producer and broadcaster, was hesitant when she first got a call from Government of Dubai Media Office to collaborate. She had a very different idea of the emirate.

“Dubai, as naive as I was, or as ignorant as I was, was a 21st century city, and I was concerned that we wouldn’t get enough wildlife to fill the show. As it turned out, we could have made more shows because there’s so much going on,” Holmes said. That’s when director Johnson came on board. “We both quickly realised that we were going to be fine and it was going to be an easy story to tell,” she added.