David takes a walk on the wild side
“I loved the original Frozen Planet series,” says Mark Brownlow, executive producer of its awe-inspiring sequel, Frozen Planet II (Sunday, BBC2, 8pm).
And so did millions of viewers both in Britain and around the rest of the world. The only surprise is that it took so long – 11 years – for a sequel to be made, although Brownlow can explain why – he wanted to spend time in many different places, not just the Poles, which were the main focus of the original run.
“As documentary makers we want to surprise the audience every episode and ring the changes,” he reveals. “Whilst there's a huge opportunity to apply new storytelling techniques and go with new filming technology, I also felt that we could broaden out the series to really surprise the audience with the breadth and variety of all the different frozen worlds scattered across our globe. Remarkably, at any given time, a fifth of our planet is covered in snow or blanketed in ice. There is an opportunity to tell a much bigger story of the frozen zone of the planet.
“And particularly now, because this is the fastest changing region on Earth due to humancaused climate change. We felt that there was a universal film to be made that was contemporary, fresh and had real relevance, linked in to the audience's greater consciousness around climate change.”
Others bringing that vision to the screen include producer Elizabeth White, who was an assistant on the first Frozen Planet.
“That series was very much about life in the polar regions and it was a seasonal story,” she explains. “Frozen Planet II is a broader remit. We are looking at anywhere that is significantly cold for multiple months of the year. This is what scientists call the cryosphere – any region of the planet where water is locked up as ice and snow.”
The penultimate episode is about to air, and it focuses on the far north of the Earth, a place of snow-covered forests and icy open tundra.
It's another great edition, but White reckons next week's finale is even better: “The last film is a very powerful watch. I think that anybody who knows anything about these regions will probably say the situation is bleak in many ways. But what we've tried to set up from the beginning is that these people are striving to turn things around before it's too late.”