Chris Packham to lead five-part Evolution BBC series

Chris Packham's new BBC series, Evolution, will explore the evolutionary journey of five modern animals <i>(Image: BBC Studios/Freddie Claire)</i>
Chris Packham's new BBC series, Evolution, will explore the evolutionary journey of five modern animals (Image: BBC Studios/Freddie Claire)
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Chris Packham is set to lead a new BBC nature series that will cover "pivotal evolutionary breakthroughs".

The 65-year-old, who was born and raised in Southampton and now lives in the New Forest, is well-known for his work on programmes like Springwatch.

Now he will present Evolution, a five-part series that "tells the extraordinary story of how life on Earth has changed over more than four billion years".

Instead of covering this in chronological order, each episode will trace the evolutionary journey of one modern animal.

This will cover the elephant, the ostrich, the bat, the dolphin, and the horse.

Chris Packham discusses filming Evolution

Speaking with the BBC about the show, Packham was asked if learning about the history of evolution made him change the way he sees the natural world.

He said: "I constantly change, and I constantly change the way I think about the natural world, because I care about it.

"And very often I'm confronted by things which make me sad.

"But they never, ever rob me of hope because ultimately we have such a broad array of solutions, our disposal, opportunities to put things right.

"And whilst those opportunities are still viable, then I'm certainly going to be doing everything I can to try and encourage people to take advantage of those and to be actually part of the solution, rather than continuing to be part of the problem.

"The only way I'm going to do that is if people care about life.

"And this series is about enhancing people's care for life, because you can't watch this series and not think that the horse, the elephant, the dolphin, and all of the species in between, are absolutely remarkable and invaluable.

"I get a real message of hope from that."

Packham also promised there would be "new stories" to tell viewers.

He added: "If you're not into natural sciences but you love life, then come to our series because we're going to surprise you.

"We're going to excite you, and we're going to engage you with some of the most remarkable stories that couldn't be written in, you know, in human fiction, because they've been written by nature itself over millions and billions of years, and they are just out of this world."



When will Evolution be on TV?

The first episode of Evolution will air at 9pm on BBC Two on Monday, July 13.

At the time of writing, no further episode times have been revealed, although they will come onto BBC iPlayer after airing.

Will you be watching Evolution? Let us know in the comments below.

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