Neil Nightingale

Neil Nightingale (born 6 February 1960[1]) is a British freelance wildlife filmmaker, executive producer and creative consultant with over 35 years experience at the BBC.

He oversaw well-received television series including Planet Earth (2006), Springwatch (2005), Wild China (2008) and Life (2009), as well as the Unit's largest-ever radio production, World on the Move (2008), which followed migrating animals live,[19] and Breathing Places, an ambitious multimedia campaign which successfully encouraged thousands of people to undertake hands-on activities with nature.

As Head of the Natural History Unit, Nightingale faced down criticism over the issues of viewer deception and value for money for licence fee payers.

In 2007, because of a lower than expected licence fee settlement, the BBC announced major cutbacks across its factual production departments, including budget and staff cuts at the Natural History Unit.

[25] Film techniques used by the Natural History Unit came under close scrutiny in 2008 following a number of scandals in which other programme-making departments in the BBC were revealed to have 'deceived' viewers.

Examples of the use of tame animals (a red fox in The Nature of Britain) and studio sets (deep sea life in The Blue Planet) to simulate footage from the wild were brought to light.