Life in the Freezer is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 18 November 1993.

Over the course of the series, the seasonal effect on the continent is explored, from one of the harshest winters on the planet to the arrival of spring, which welcomes a population of ocean travellers returning to breed.

It had a retractable keel, which enabled the vessel to venture into shallow bays and land camera crews on to remote islands, where they could remain in contact via radio.

A steadicam was used to obtain close-ups of fighting fur seals, with another person carrying a pair of wooden poles close by, in case one of the creatures attacked the human visitors.

Also shown are the various seabirds which feed in the Antarctic sea, especially albatrosses, whose impressive wingspans are possible because they utilise the updraft generated by the huge waves in the stormy southern waters.

They form large breeding colonies, where the males fight fierce battles to gain and retain permanent access to a great number of females and mate with them as soon as they are receptive again.

A South Georgian colony of fur seals is shown: the pups grow fast on the rich, fatty milk provided by their mothers and double their weight in just sixty days.

Chinstrap penguins form large groups on Deception Island, climbing up its steep slopes to find mountain ridges free of snow.

The fresh water allows moss and other plants to grow, which in turn provide food for mites that are adapted to the cold climate – they can survive temperatures up to minus 30 °C because they contain a kind of antifreeze.

At Cape Royds, the most southernly colony of Adelie penguins is virtually emptied as adults lead their newly feathered young to the sea.

Young penguins often fall prey to leopard seals as they try to make their way across the already partially frozen water – and their stripped remains become food for isopods and meter-long nemerteans.

The freezing sea ice usually does not reach South Georgia, and seal pups are still fed there by their mothers in autumn to be ready for the winter.

As almost all animal inhabitants of Antarctica are forced to migrate, the sea underneath the ice still provides a home to many specially adapted fish whose cells are protected from freezing through an inherent "antifreeze".

Broadcast 23 December 1993, the final instalment discusses human exploration of Antarctica, in particular the mission led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, whose team died on the way back from the South Pole.

Attenborough contrasts the transportation used by Scott (initially motor sledge, ponies and dogs before ending up on foot) with today's helicopters.

The episode also details the scientific work in the modern human bases in Antarctica, especially Mawson Station and its observation of Adelie penguins (partially through tracking devices).

The film concludes that although working in Antarctica is now much easier than during the early days of exploration, human footsteps on the continent are still exceedingly rare – in part because of international treaties prohibiting industrial exploitation.

At a time when it's possible for thirty people to stand on the top of Everest in one day, Antarctica still remains a remote, lonely and desolate continent.

Long may it remain so.After Life in the Freezer was broadcast, A. N. Wilson, then a television reviewer for The Independent, wrote a column accusing the production team of staging a harrowing sequence in which a leopard seal killed and dismembered a young penguin.

He claimed that the chances of filming natural behaviour like this were far too low, and that the crew must have thrown baby penguins to the seal until they got the shot they wanted.