Mike Gunton is a TV producer and senior executive at the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the world’s largest production unit dedicated to wildlife filmmaking. In 2009, he became its first creative director. In this role, he is responsible for bringing new stories about the natural world to global audiences, including nature documentary series Planet Earth II (2016) and Planet Earth III (2023).
Gunton is set to serve as the live host for the “intensely impactful and utterly memorable” Planet Earth III live concert coming to London and Manchester later this year. The show, he tells blooloop, aims to remind audiences “how diverse, in a biological sense, and how wonderful the natural world still is.”
At the concert, guests will see a selection of breathtaking moments from the acclaimed TV series on a giant state-of-the-art LED screen, accompanied by music performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
“There is still so much to see and to understand. It’s hubris of us to think we know everything about the natural world. We do not,” he says.
“In the natural world, the complexity of the ecology, of how the natural world actually works as a machine; we need to understand that, because it’s our salvation. Our lives depend on that, and our survival depends on understanding that.”
Gunton has developed and produced series including Galapagos, Yellowstone, Madagascar, Life, Africa, Shark, Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Life Story, Dynasties and The Green Planet.
Seeing the wonders of the world
A biologist by training and an amateur filmmaker throughout school and university, Gunton says he always wanted to be a filmmaker. However, he didn’t think he’d be a wildlife filmmaker:
“I wanted to be a documentary filmmaker. But I got an opportunity in my twenties to work on what everybody said would be David Attenborough’s last series,” he says. “In 1987, I went to the natural history unit and never left. It’s a hackneyed thing to say, but I cannot think of a better job. It ticks every box I would ever want to be ticked in my life, and I’ve had the great pleasure of travelling around, seeing the wonders of the world, telling people about it, and working with Attenborough. I can’t ask for more.”
The new Planet Earth III live concert comes after the critically acclaimed Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II arena tours. In October, there will be three special performances of Planet Earth III Live in Concert at the OVO Arena Wembley in London and Manchester’s AO Arena.
Evolution of Planet Earth arena tours
“A bit like Planet Earth the series, we evolve and up the ante. I think we’ve done that with Planet Earth III Live in Concert. The DNA of the Planet Earth series is constant, but we change. The same is true of the DNA of the concert,” he says.
“We’re just working on the sequences, the music and the script right now – and it will be absolutely spectacular. There is no question. Part of the joy of going is the experience. You walk into a room, they close the doors, and you spend two hours with a giant screen with the most beautiful images, the most arresting, most dramatic, most intense, natural worlds you can imagine, accompanied by a live orchestra playing to that.
“It’s hard to calculate what it is scientifically, but there’s something undeniable about being in a room with thousands of other people [and] hearing a live orchestra. There’s something energetic, something unspoken, something subliminal that goes on, and it’s just so exciting.”
Enhanced by music
An orchestral score from Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Sara Barone for Bleeding Fingers Music will be played by the City of Prague Philharmonic. “We’ve got some beautiful music. Hans Zimmer’s music and his team’s music is a sensation; hearing it played in all its glory [and] given its full voice, so to speak. We worked with Bastille and RAYE; their music also features. It’s a rousing, anthemic end to the concert,” says Gunton.
“One of the reasons we use music in our natural history shows is because it amplifies the drama and the emotion, the sense of what’s going on. When you do the concert, unlike the TV show, which has music, narration, and sound effects, the music is front and centre. You have two stimuli of amazing imagery and phenomenal music. It is an intensely emotional experience.”
During the performance, guests will see incredible footage from the latest TV series in 4K Ultra HD on an expansive LED screen. “The screen is enormous,” he adds.
“When you compare Planet Earth III with Planet Earth II Live in Concert, the quality of the imagery – both technical imagery but in terms of the resolution and the ability of the camera operators and the cameras to show things and be closer and be more revelatory – is chalk and cheese. It’s a massive evolution. You get a really proximate, intense experience with the camera. The camera is in the action with the animals, and you feel that in that environment.”
A “more experiential” show
As the show’s guide, Gunton will share anecdotes from behind the scenes of the TV series. He will take the audience through the visual and musical experience.
He says, “It’s not like a concert. We will make it more experiential and try to connect the audience to the orchestra and the images.
“There will be a sense of interaction between the audience and the event’s presentation. When the doors open, it isn’t just sit down and sit back. [Guests will] be involved and brought into the experience, those that want to. Every element that we can find to connect the audience to the music and the images, we will be pushing that as much as we can.”
Gunton says the key distinction between the latest show and the previous concerts is that “we’re telling stories in not quite such a linear way”. He adds, “Some of the sequences will be more connected. We’ll introduce a theme and then have maybe two or three stories that play in that theme. I don’t want to denigrate the others; they were brilliant. But it’s a slightly snazzier, slightly more sophisticated presentation.”
A trip around Planet Earth
Audiences will enjoy a selection of footage from 43 countries across six continents. It ranges from vast deserts to lush forests, along coastlines and into the ocean’s depths. The series itself was filmed over 1,904 days. “I think the story we’re telling in the series aligns with the classic Planet Earth signatures, or wonder: ‘I’ve never seen that before, that’s so dramatic, that’s so sad, that’s so funny’ – all those emotions,” says Gunton.
The concert will put audiences in the scorching heat of the Namib desert. Here, they’ll see an ostrich father tending to his newly hatched young. Next, they will make their way to the lush forests of Borneo to meet a dedicated pair of oriental pied hornbills. Guests will also see incredible footage of a leopard attempting a death-defying leap. Later in the concert, the audience visit the Canadian Arctic, where wolves work together to hunt muskox.
Exploring the impact of people
He adds that another key difference between the Planet Earth III and Planet Earth II series and shows is “another context, another perspective, which is that humanity now has a big impact on the natural world.” This concert will show how animals are adapting to survive new challenges faced at this crucial time in history when humans play a central role.
“What we’ve done in the series is said that we do have a negative impact, but there’s also an army of people,” he says. “There’s this wave of concern, activity, and determination among people doing remarkable things. People dedicate their lives to protecting, saving, returning, nurturing and conserving. We feature that in a very uplifting way. It’s not quite the finale. But it builds to that at the end of the concert, so it will also be very thought-provoking.”
“When the doors open again at the end of the concert and people walk out, I hope they will think, ‘I’m going to take some of that with me. Maybe I can do something because we are part of the problem but also part of the solution’.”
On the subject of location-based entertainment, BBC Studios previously had the BBC Earth Experience: a 360-degree multimedia experience based on Seven Worlds, One Planet. The attraction in London and Melbourne is part of a burgeoning trend for immersive entertainment.
Gunton says, “The more ways, the more avenues [and] the more mediums we can find to tell stories about the natural world the better. We’re an urban species now; we are disconnected from nature.”
Measuring the tour’s carbon footprint
“A lot of our experience of nature comes through our programmes and all of these kinds of experiences. I do think it’s an important part of the job to remind people of the real world out there. We are all of the natural world. That’s our natural habitat. We are an ape.”
Planet Earth III Live in Concert is under licence from BBC Studios to international concert and festival promoter FKP Scorpio. To understand the specific environmental impact of this show, FKP Scorpio is focusing on carbon footprint assessment. It measures the tour’s carbon footprint by capturing data for all production elements, including transportation, venue electricity, recycling methods and crew catering.
“We speak about [sustainability], so if we’re going to speak about it, we’d better be doing it. Everything we do in the making of the series is now so much focused on reducing our impact, our footprint on the natural world – both in terms of consumption, as well as sustainability,” Gunton tells us.
Planet Earth III Live in Concert: an impactful and memorable experience
“We certainly measured the carbon footprint of Planet Earth III, the series. [The concert] will be measured. We only work with people we feel have the credentials that fit our ethos and values. What’s gratifying is that people are interested in this and feel it’s important.”
The aforementioned LED screen is “hyper-low energy consumption”, he adds. “Imagine if we were doing this on screens that were cathode rays or projected – the power consumption would be enormous.” As for the music, it’s “powered by the sweat of the human brow”, says Gunton.
He finishes: “I genuinely hope people will come and enjoy it. I think there isn’t much you can do that is comparable. Those two hours would be an amazing two hours spent. I think it would be intensely impactful and utterly memorable.”
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