The Major is the first BBC natural history documentary film to be made in colour,[1] though it was originally screened, in 1963, in black and white,[1] as colour television broadcasts did not begin in the United Kingdom until 1967.
[2] After that it became one of the BBC Natural History Unit's most repeated shows.
[2] It describes the felling of an eponymous, three-century-old, oak tree, which has become considered a hazard to traffic, and the effect that that has on the wildlife that lives in it, and on the fictionalised English village in which it grew.
[1] Actor Paul Rogers narrated a script by Desmond Hawkins.
[3] The music was composed and conducted by George Shears and performed by the BBC's West of England Players.