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Documentary series · BBC

Planet Earth II

2016 British nature documentary television series

Verification status: Imported automatically from public Wikidata and Wikipedia records; not yet reviewed by an editor. Fields we could not find are marked “Not verified”.

Research date: 2026-11-08

Synopsis

Planet Earth II is a 2016 British nature documentary series co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC Studios, BBC America, ZDF, France Télévisions and Tencent, and distributed by BBC Worldwide. It functions as a sequel to Planet Earth, which was broadcast in 2006. The series is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.

Announced in 2013, Planet Earth II is the first television series produced by the BBC in ultra high definition (4K), and set out to utilise new filmmaking technologies that had been developed since the first series.

The first trailer was released on 9 October 2016, and the series premiered on 6 November 2016 in the United Kingdom on BBC One and BBC One HD. It aired internationally on BBC Earth and other networks.

The series received universal critical acclaim, with many reviewers commending the use of new filmmaking technology and declaring it among the best nature documentaries of all time. It won two Television Awards and two Television Craft Awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

A sequel titled Planet Earth III aired in 2023.

Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Key facts

Official title
Planet Earth II
Alternative titles
Planet Earth 2
Original release
2016-11-06 – 2016-12-11
Country of production
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genres
nature documentary, documentary film
Seasons
1
Episodes
6
Directors
Not verified
Producers
David Attenborough, Mike Gunton
Production company
BBC Natural History Unit, BBC Studios, BBC America, ZDF, Tencent, France Télévisions
Presenters
David Attenborough
Official website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02544td
Official trailer
Not verified

Streaming

Listed service
BBC
Original or licensed
Original — public records list BBC as the original network or distributor (BBC One, Netflix).
Available now in UK
Not yet checked
Available now in Ireland
Not yet checked
Available now in US
Not yet checked
Past availability
Not verified

Episodes, events and timeline

Episode titles, summaries, running times, key events and a timeline have not been researched for this series yet. We'll add them only once they can be checked against reliable sources.

Sources