The first episode in the series was "Volcano", a film by the French vulcanologist Haroun Tazieff; the Natural History Unit's first contribution was "Forest and Firebird" featuring the brilliantly coloured scarlet ibis.

[6] Programmes such as these were no accident: The World About Us was described by Barry Paine, a frequent producer and narrator during its first two decades, as "a series designed to sell colour television sets".

[7] Due to the difficulty of sourcing colour films at the time, The World About Us started out with a broad remit of geography, anthropology and natural history as subject matter.

The first episode under the new title was "Save the Panda", broadcast on 30 October 1983 in what would become a regular time slot on Sunday evenings (where series editor Peter Jones claimed audiences were "hungry for natural history").

[9] At the same time, researchers and field biologists were publishing many new discoveries about wildlife in scientific journals, providing the BBC with plentiful material for new programme ideas.

David Attenborough maintained a close association with Natural World throughout its long history, narrating or presenting around 50 episodes until 2019 (one year before the show's cancellation in 2020).

The tone of the strand was set by its first series editor, Peter Jones, who gave his film-makers the time and budget to explore their subjects in more detail.

Mike Gunton, series editor from 2001 to 2004, introduced more human elements into the programmes, granted filmmakers additional time in the field to get the shots they needed and continued to experiment with style.

[2] In its current guise, Natural World programmes typically fall into three categories: strong, emotional stories; popular or unusual but interesting animal subjects; and films offering a different, personal perspective.

Notable award-winners from the early years of the series include the 1986 Prix Italia for Vanishing Earth and an Emmy for cinematography for Kingdom of the Ice Bear.

The Royal Television Society awarded Natural World the Best Documentary Strand in 1999[13] and photography prizes to the episodes "Mississippi, Tales of the Last River Rat" in 2005 and "Wye, Voices from the Valley" in 2007.