[1] The show drew attention for alleged fakery and the BBC eventually acknowledged that a number of scenes were inaccurately depicted or misleading and withdrew the series from distribution.

Each episode of the series focuses on a different human-inhabited environment, including deserts, jungles, the Arctic, grasslands, rivers, mountains, oceans, and the urban landscape.

Topics include: goose barnacle collection in coastal Galicia in northern Spain; sperm whale hunting off the Indonesian archipelago island of Lembata; bottlenose dolphin assisted fishing at Laguna in Brazil; the spiritual origins and modern aspects of surfing in Hawaii; shark calling in Papua New Guinea; the dangers of compressor diving around Palawan in the Philippines; and the transient stateless houseboat Bajau people living in the Coral Sea near Borneo.

Topics include: cattle herders racing African elephants to Lake Banzena for scarce water resources in Mali; sacred Antogo fishing by the Dogon people in a drought shrunken Mali lake; Tubu women in Niger navigating their way across the Sahara with a camel caravan on the way to market; the struggle between wolves and camel and sheep herders in the wintry Gobi Desert; moisture farming for agriculture in the Atacama Desert; mining and networking underground aqueducts in rural Algeria; details of extravagant water usage in Las Vegas; and the annual Guérewol fertility dance of the Wodaabe Fula people in Niger.

Topics include: blowgun hunting canopy monkeys with the Matis in Brazil; hunting goliath tarantula with the Piaroa people in Venezuela; breastfeeding orphaned monkey pets by the Awá Guajá people of the eastern Amazon; hunting birds-of-paradise for plumage used to crown costumes at the Mount Hagen sing-sing in Papua New Guinea; gathering honeycomb with the Bayaka in the Congo jungle; logging timber using Asian elephants in Assam, India; gathering evidence of uncontacted peoples in Brazil; and building a tree house 35 metres high with the Korowai in West Papua, Indonesia.

Topics include: ethnic Kazakhs hunting with golden eagles in the Altai Mountains of Mongolia; cliff-farmers battling gelada monkeys in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia; mining rock sulphur in the active Ijen crater on the Indonesian island of Java; Yangoru-boiken tribe members hunting giant bats in the New Guinea Highlands; avalanche control using dynamite on mountains near Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps; cataracts due to high-UV rates, and free eye surgery provided by Dr. Sanduk Ruit in remote areas of the Himalayas, Nepal; and a Tibetan sky burial using vultures high in the rural mountainside.

Topics include: Dorobo people using guile to steal wildebeest meat from a lion pride in Kenya; bushmen tracking and ambushing kudu in the Kalahari; netting water snakes for food and for market in Cambodia's flooded Tonlé Sap grasslands; Maasai boys and a honeyguide working collaboratively to locate and then harvest African bee honey; protecting rice crops in Tanzania from massive swarms of quelea; mustering horses on the Mongolian steppe in order to make airag (a traditional fermented horse-milk yoghurt); traditional Donga stick-fights of Ethiopia's Suri tribesmen; mustering beef cattle by helicopter in the northern Australian outback.

Topics include: fishermen traversing the Mekong's cataracts in Si Phan Don, Laos, during the monsoon floods; a 100 kilometre 6-day winter trek to school along the frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh, India; flood control through ice-breaking with dynamite along the Rideau River in Ottawa; moving houses threatened by a collapsing riverbank along the Ganges in Bangladesh; preparing for the annual flood on Brazil's Rio Negro by harvesting baby turtles; fishing in the rapids on the edge of Victoria Falls; Samburu camel herders tracking elephants to locate water below the dry Milgis riverbed in northern Kenya; plastering the mud-walled mosque of Djenné; and the natural living bridges of Meghalaya in northern India.

Topics include: using falconry in Dubai to control the feral pigeon population; local police on Segway scooters controlling wild elk stags in Estes Park, Colorado; the dilemma of selling food in a rhesus macaque-infested market in Jaipur; catching rats and controlling other pests in New York City; dealing with a bedbug infestation in London with a sniffer dog; attracting feral pigeons in Fes in order to harvest droppings for leather tanning; living with and profiting from free-tailed bats in Austin, Texas; Bishnois rescuing and caring for orphaned fawns in Rajasthan; the availability of non-seasonal or non-local foods all over the world; scavenging on a landfill in Mombasa, Kenya; building the green city of Masdar in Abu Dhabi; and urban apiary in New York City.