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Documentary series · BBC

Frozen Planet

2011 British nature documentary 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

Frozen Planet is a 2011 British nature documentary series. It was produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit, Discovery Channel, Antena 3 Television S.A., ZDF, Skai tv and The Open University, in association with Discovery Channel Canada. The production team, which includes executive producer Alastair Fothergill and series producer Vanessa Berlowitz, were previously responsible for the award-winning series The Blue Planet (2001) and Planet Earth (2006), and Frozen Planet is billed as a sequel of sorts. David Attenborough returns as narrator. The series is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide.

The seven-part series focuses on life and the environment in both the Arctic and Antarctic. The production team were keen to film a comprehensive record of the natural history of the polar regions because climate change is affecting landforms such as glaciers, ice shelves, and the extent of sea ice. The series was met with critical acclaim and holds a Metacritic score of 91/100.

Whilst the series was broadcast in full in the UK, the BBC chose to make the series' seventh episode, which focuses on climate change, optional for syndication in order to aid sales of the show in countries where the issue is politically sensitive. The US Discovery Channel originally announced that they would air only the first six episodes of the show, but they later added the seventh episode to their schedule.

In 2012, the US broadcast won four Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Nonfiction Series. A sequel titled Frozen Planet II began aring in September 2022, which covers more frozen habitats than just the polar regions, while also emphasizing more on the threat of climate change.

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

Key facts

Official title
Frozen Planet
Alternative titles
Frozen Planet the Epic Journey
Original release
2011-10-26 – 2011-12-28
Country of production
United Kingdom
Language
English
Genres
nature documentary
Seasons
1
Episodes
7
Directors
Alastair Fothergill
Producers
Alastair Fothergill
Production company
Not verified
Presenters
David Attenborough
Official website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mfl7n
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