Palaeocast

LOOP 6.4: Prof. Anjan Bhullar continues his overview of avian evolution with a look at how the birds fared after the K-Pg mass extinction. What was it that allowed birds to survive when the non-avian…

LOOP 6.3: Documentary research takes you down a lot of unexpected avenues. If you’re recreating something like the Chicxulub impact and the K-Pg mass extinction, then you need to be able to provide a…

LOOP 6.2: Dr Anjan Bhullar, Yale University, returns to speak further about dinosaurs. He’s pressed on where he’d draw the line between dinosaur and bird, or whether there should even be a distinctio…

LOOP 6.1: Dave and Tom introduce us to episode 6 of Life On Our Planet and the pair touch upon the Chicxulub impact and the radiation of birds into the Cenozoic. Dave curtails the introduction with o…

LOOP 5.3: We’re exploring feather evolution with Dr Anjan Bhullar, University of Yale. We trace feathers up the theropod family tree and question whether or not they would be present in ALL dinosaurs…

LOOP 5.2: Producer Barny Revill returns to talk about his second episode. With the public spotlight firmly fixated on the dinosaurs, how much effort had to go into their GCI models and does the reput…

LOOP 5.1: It’s episode 5 and Dave and Tom are pronouncing dinosaur names all wrong. Does any actually pronounce it “Deinonychus”? Dave reveals why Netflix chose Morgan Freeman as narrator over himsel…

LOOP 4.3: Prof. Peter Falkingham, Liverpool John Moores University, was the consultant biomechanist for the series. He introduces us to the importance of biomechanics in CGI, but more widely in deter…

LOOP 4.2: We get down to details with Producer Barny Revill and analyse some of the different elements of episode 4: What were the challenges of working in such inhospitable environments? How do you …

LOOP 4.1: Against the odds, we’ve all made it through the PTME. It’s now time to focus on episode 4, with the reptiles and their adaptation to different environments. We touch upon biomechanics and c…

LOOP 3.4: With researcher Ida-May Jones, we explore the Venn diagram of academic and documentary research. She introduces us to the strawberry dart frogs and the extraordinary lengths that mothers wi…

LOOP 3.3: Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, gives us an overview of the major events in tetrapod evolution. He reveals some of the surprising traits that lobe-finned fishes ‘pre-possessed’ th…

LOOP 3.2: Producer Sophie Lanfear gives us our first insights into how documentaries are shaped. She tells us about the enormous scope of episode three and the difficulty of trying to fit in so many …

LOOP 3.1: We introduce episode three of Life On Our Planet and discuss one of the most significant stories in the series. We’re in agreement that lichens are the unsung heroes of the whole series and…

LOOP 2.4: Silverback researcher Edd Dyer joins us to introduce us to his part in the creation of the series. The title ‘researcher’ really doesn’t do justice to the incredible scope of his role which…

LOOP 2.3: Hydrodynamicist Dr Tom Fletcher, Silverback Films, returns to explore the science behind Dunkleosteus. How much of the fossil is known? How does the model compare to the latest reconstructi…

LOOP 2.2: Prof. Christian Klug, University of Zurich, is our first academic guest. He introduces us to the Cambrian explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event and the Late Ordovician Ma…

LOOP 2.1: We introduce episode two of Life On Our Planet and discuss our roles in its creation. We’re down deep in the geological time with all the “crunchy and squishy” organisms. We talk about our …

In LOOP 1.2 we are joined by showrunner Dan Tapster. He’s the one responsible for pulling everything together, designing the story and creating the best production team. We learn about how LOOP first…

Life On Our Planet (LOOP) is a new 8-part series created for Netflix by Silverback Films and Amblin Television. This Steven Spielberg produced series, narrated by Morgan Freeman, is hugely ambitious …