In each series a group of eight 12- to 15-year-olds embark on an expedition to an extreme part of the world, in order to help wildlife or assist in environmental projects.

[1] Chosen from 1,000 applicants, eight adventurers faced a mission to build a feeding platform in the heart of the Borneo jungle, to help return orangutans to the wild (many of them rescued after being illegally kept as pets).

They sleep under tarpaulin in the dunes and see black rhinos, but also wildebeest, zebra, springbok, giraffes, jackals, snakes, scorpions and elephants.

Filming from 13 April to 5 May 2003, they build a new camel enclosure and finally make an epic fifty mile trek across the Namibian sand dunes to the Skeleton Coast.

Chosen from 9,000 applicants, eight adventurers flew to Baffin Island, Canada, where they made an attempt to track polar bears across the pack ice, riding on husky sleds, with the season being filmed from 4 to 24 April 2004.

The team of eight removed the illegal fishing nets to leave the dolphins safe, and also built habitats for the bald uakari.

[7] Serious Andes aired from 4 June to 20 August 2007 and followed eight adventurers who, after being chosen from a then-record 36,000 12-to-15-year-olds, travelled to Ecuador to build an enclosure for spectacled bears.

A book of the series was released during December 2007, entitled Serious Survival: How to Poo in the Arctic and Other Essential Tips, owing to the success of its broadcasting history.

[21] Written by the Series Producer Marshall Corwin, Serious Survival was shortlisted for the prestigious Royal Society Junior Science Books Prize.

Initially, the next Serious series was to be filmed in China, and would have followed the journey of 13th-century explorer, Marco Polo, including joining a camel train in the Taklamakan Desert, climbing mountains, and spending time with local tribes.

The series was later rescheduled to film in Tanzania in Africa at the end of 2009, where the team would follow in the foot steps of explorer David Livingstone.

However, during filming, expedition guide Anton Turner died when he was mauled by an elephant on 30 October 2009, and production was reported to have ceased.

During the expedition three of the most promising of the seven explorers were chosen to cross the Mbarika mountain range, while the remaining four stayed behind to build an enclosure to fend off lions in a village; in the final episode, having come close to their target, the death of Anton was reported, who had gone out in advance of the day's trek over Mbarika to ensure the walk would be safe.

Serious Ocean won the Maritime Media Award 2008, beating off competition from adult series such as the BBC's Trawlermen and Channel 5's Warship.