DAVE THE RAPPER MEETS SIR DAVID THE LEGEND IN PLANET EARTH TV SPECIAL
HE TURNED 94 in May but it seems there is just no stopping Sir David Attenborough. Next month will bring the heaviy-anticipated cinematic release of his new film A Life on Our Planet. But before that highly-anticipated feature arrives, the naturalist and national treasure has teamed up with a gaggle of awardwinning musicians for
Planet Earth: A Celebration.
This one-hour special combines eight of the most extraordinary sequences from Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II with a stunning musical performance.
BBC DirectorGeneral Tony Hall says: “The BBC has curated this amazing collection of sequences from two of the most talked about natural history series of recent years, Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, as a spectacular treat.
“With new narration from the brilliant David Attenborough, a new score from Hans Zimmer and the team at Bleeding Fingers, played by the BBC Concert Orchestra with Brit and Mercury Award-winning UK rapper Dave on the piano, this thrilling journey around the world promises to lift everyone’s spirits.”
It takes us around the world, from the East Cape of South Africa to the north of Norway, from Chile to the Indian Ocean, to see how animals overcome adversity in some of the world’s most challenging environments – offering a message of hope to humanity.
Renowned movie composer Hans Zimmer has been joined by Jacob Shea and the team at Bleeding Fingers to create brand-new compositions and rearranged original scores.
“Working with David on so many of his magnificent programmes celebrating nature and our planet has been a joy for me,” says Hans.
The string section of the score is performed in a socially distanced space by the BBC Concert Orchestra, accompanied by Dave.
Speaking to DJ Mag, Dave said: “David Attenborough is obviously a legend and he means a lot to me because he represents good in everything that he has done. He has shown what it means to care for something and have a passion, and that translates to all walks of life, you can take David Attenborough’s ethos towards nature and apply it to anything that you do – that inspires me.” Among the Planet Earth II sequences featured is lions vs giraffe, which sees a pride of desert lions in Namibia that are so hungry they risk a nail-biting hunt of a giraffe several times their size. We also see a mother snow leopard protecting her cub from two males in the Himalayas.
And last but not least, there’s the Bafta-winning racer snakes vs iguana scenes, which sees our plucky hero, a hatchling marine iguana, sprint across the beach followed by a hunting mob of racer snakes.
From Blue Planet II we once again witness scenes like the charming surfing bottlenose dolphins off South Africa.
The good news for Attenborough fans is that another brand-new five-part BBC series called A Perfect Planet will be hitting our screens this year. It will explore how weather, oceans, volcanoes and sunlight have shaped the natural world, and how different species adapt to survive and thrive. Something the evergreen Sir David has mastered during his long and illustrious career.
Planet Earth – A Celebration, BBC1, tomorrow, 8pm