[3] The BBC natural history unit's links to Bristol date back to the 1940s, when Desmond Hawkins, then a young producer, joined the West Region staff.

His personal interest in the subject led to a radio series called The Naturalist, which began on the Home Service in 1946 and proved an immediate success, later augmented by Out of Doors and Birds in Britain.

At the time, radio still commanded much higher audiences than the fledgling television service, but Hawkins was not alone in recognising the potential for natural history programmes for the newer medium.

His vision was shared by Frank Gillard, the regional Head, and the two men would become the driving force behind the establishment of the Natural History Unit (NHU) in Bristol.

By 1957, with Look firmly established and Gillard and Hawkins lobbying hard, the BBC management in London approved the official formation of a Natural History Unit.

The Travel and Exploration Unit in London also introduced viewers to more exotic wildlife, and made household names of the first natural history presenters.

Founder members included Tony Soper (producer) and Christopher Parsons (assistant film editor), both of whom would go on to play a major part in the Unit's development.

Although much of the Unit's early output concentrated on British and European wildlife, one of its first productions to be broadcast was Faraway Look featuring Peter Scott in Australia.

The Major (1963), produced by Parsons and filmed largely by New Forest cameraman Eric Ashby, told the story of an ancient English oak and was the Unit's first colour production.

One of Attenborough's main achievements as Controller of BBC 2 was to commission Civilisation (1969), a major series presented by the respected art historian Kenneth Clark.

It celebrated its silver jubilee in 1982 with the miniseries Flight of the Condor, and sealed its reputation as one of the foremost production companies for popular natural history films in the following decades.

In 2007, the Unit celebrated its 50th anniversary and was rewarded with a special award at the International Broadcasting Convention in recognition of its unique contribution to wildlife film and documentary making.

[6] On television, the anniversary was marked with the broadcast of Saving Planet Earth, a conservation-themed series which helped to raise over £1.5 million for the BBC Wildlife Fund.

[7] In October 2007, the BBC announced that the NHU would suffer cuts of a third in both staff numbers and its £37 million annual budget, as a result of the Government's decision to impose a lower than inflation increase in the television licence fee.

[8][11] Productions already underway were not affected by the cuts, so the following year came Wild China, Pacific Abyss, Lost Land of the Jaguar and Big Cat Live, as well as the Unit's most ambitious radio event to date, World on the Move.

Being the first and the largest production unit devoted to natural history programme making, it maintains an extensive archive of images[13] and sound recordings as well as film materials.

[34] In 2008, episodes of Life in Cold Blood and the Wildlife Special miniseries Tiger: Spy in the Jungle both reportedly achieved the highest-ever audience appreciation index (AI) rating for a factual programme.

[35] Since launching commercially, the Natural History Unit has won commissions from international broadcasters including Apple TV+ (The Year Earth Changed[36] and Prehistoric Planet[37]), Discovery Channel (Endangered, narrated by Ellen DeGeneres[38]), NBCUniversal (The Americas previously known as The New World), National Geographic (Ocean Xplorers[39] in partnership with James Cameron), and PBS (Wild Scandinavia, narrated by Rebecca Ferguson[40]), as well as producing for the BBC.