Everything about Springwatch With Bill Oddie totally explained
Springwatch is a live
BBC TV nature programme, presented by
Bill Oddie,
Kate Humble and
Simon King.
As of 2007, there have been three Springwatch series, the latest of which ran until
15 June 2007. A second series of
Autumnwatch was shown on
BBC2 in the autumn of 2007. They followed on from similar nature shows with the same presenters, such as 2003's
Wild In Your Garden and 2004's
Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie.
Oddie and Humble are based at a working
farm near to
Dartmoor in
Devon,
England (the same farm used for
Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie), while King is mostly on location. They spend one hour each evening describing wildlife and presenting live action from a number of hidden
cameras in or near
nest boxes or animal burrows. The birds include or have included
Tits,
Jackdaws,
Pied Wagtails and
Barn Owls. Animals followed include
Badgers and their set and, in 2006,
European Otters in the
Shetland Islands with King. Short, pre-filmed
documentary pieces are also included.
Despite its title 'Springwatch' most of its run is aired in June, generally recognised as the first month of Summer in the UK although officially the season changes from spring to summer at the solstice around the 21st June.
The popular programme consistently scores highly in TV ratings bringing in over 3.5 million viewers per episode, and in a new excursion on 13th June 2007 it even migrated to
BBC Radio 2 for a live outside broadcast from the
Springwatch farm of the 'Wake up to Wogan' show presented by
Terry Wogan.
Series
2005
The first series ran between
30 May 2005 and
16 June 2005 with Oddie and Humble at the
Devon farm and King on location. For the first week, King was on the
Isle of Mull observing a family of
White-tailed Eagles, for the second week he was at the
London Wetlands Centre where he also observed a family of
Peregrine falcons), and for the third week he was in the
Farne Islands observing the resident seabirds.
In addition to the programme itself,
Springwatch invited viewers to participate in a survey of the first springtime sightings of various animal and plant species across the British Isles to aid in
phenological research.
2006
Springwatch 2006 was similar to the previous year. It ran from
29 May 2006 to
15 June 2006, Monday to Thursday, at 8pm on
BBC Two. Oddie and Humble presented from the farm, while King was on the
Shetland Islands.
On the farm, there were more than 50 secret mini-cameras and miles of
fibre-optic cable around the farm allowing viewers to keep an eye on animals raising their young.
In the Shetland Islands, to the north of the
Scottish mainland, King followed the stories of several animals,
European Otters,
Grey Seals,
Great Skuas,
Oystercatchers,
Puffins and more.
The animal and plant survey was repeated.
Viewers were able to follow other animal family dramas beamed in live via webcam daily from around the country. These included
Ospreys at
Loch Garten in Scotland,
Red Kites at
Rockingham Forest in the
East Midlands and
Bats in
Cornwall.
Springwatch 2006 also followed the story of "Super Geese", tracking
Brent Geese on their journey from
Strangford Lough in
Ireland to their Canadian Arctic breeding grounds in the
Queen Elizabeth Islands, via stopping points at
Iceland and
Greenland.
There was also a series of
Springwatch on the
CBeebies children's channel, presented by
Justin Fletcher, along with characters from various Cbeebies programmes, such as
PC Plum from
Balamory, and on
BBC One on the Friday of each week of
Springwatch a special
CBBC The Really Wild Show programme was broadcast for younger viewers, presented by
Nick Baker and
Michaela Strachan.
Autumnwatch 2006
The first
Autumnwatch ran for 8 episodes of 1 hour each, Monday to Thursday, from
2 October 2006 until
12 October 2006. Oddie and Humble were stationed "in comfort" at
Martin Mere in
Lancashire while King was sent out "on location": this time on
Rùm to study
red deer. In addition A "
Grey Seal Diary" was presented nightly by Gordon Buchanan from the seal breeding colonies on the
Monach Islands. People in the UK were able to report on the BBC website the date and location of their sightings of natural autumn events, such as the first blackberries. This enabled an online map of the arrival of autumn by time and geography, correlated with temperature.
On
December 262006, a special edition was broadcast, featuring highlights from
Springwatch and
Autumnwatch 2006.
Animals featured in 2006
Springwatch:
- On the Devon farm
- On Shetland
- Featured films
2007
The 2007 series of
Springwatch began on Monday,
28 May 2007 on
BBC Two, and ran Monday-Thursday for three weeks, with a half-hour review of the week's activity each Friday, on
BBC One. Oddie and Humble were again based on the Devon farm, while King was based on another farm on the island of
Islay in the Southern
Inner Hebrides. The last episode was aired on
15 June 2007.
CBeebies Springwatch returned with all the main Cbeebies characters including
P.C. Plum (Balamory) with Jelly and Jackson
(The Story Makers).
The 2007 series saw the addition of
Springwatch Nightshift, which ran from midnight to 2am on programme dates, with subtitles rather than a narrator or presenters. The nightshift featured live images of badgers, owls and bats.
Springwatch Trackers was also live from the farm, at 8am on CBBC2 each morning. Hosted by
Kirsten O'Brien and
Steve Backshall, teams of boys and girls were set a series of Tracker challenges by Simon King, while viewers at home had to spot the "secret squirrel".
A special
Spring Questions edition of the
BBC Radio 4 programme
Nature, presented by
Brett Westwood, was broadcast on
11 June 2007, answering listeners' questions about spring.
Animals featured in
Springwatch 2007:
On the Devon farm:
On Islay:
At the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall
Featured films
- 'The House Mouse'
- 'Fox Diary' (aka. Fox and the City) (starring Jamie and his cubs, The Chip Shop Family and Mungo)
- 'Kestrel on the motorway'
- Caterpillar to butterfly
For the first time in Springwatch history, there were no Blue Tits or Great Tits nesting on the farm at the time of production, as due to a mild April they'd fledged before the program was broadcast.
Autumnwatch 2007
At the end of the last Springwatch programme (14 June), Oddie and Humble announced that there will be another Autumnwatch, starting on November 5,2007.
2008
Springwatch 2008
Springwatch 2008 started at 8pm on Monday 26th May 2008 on BBC Two and will run for three weeks. Oddie and Humble have moved to a new location in Norfolk for this series.
Book
A book covering the various series, "Springwatch and Autumnwatch" (ISBN 0007247060), was published by Collins in April 2007.
Music
The theme music used in all the series is called 'Britain Goes Wild' and was commissioned by the BBC from independent musician David Poore, who has also produced music for wildlife documentaries by the BBC, RTÉ and other broadcasters.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Springwatch With Bill Oddie'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://springwatch_with_bill_oddie.totallyexplained.com">Springwatch with Bill Oddie Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
