John Downer

Consistently stunning documentaries transport viewers to far-flung locations ranging from the torrid African plains to the chilly splendours of icy Antarctica. The show's primary focus is on animals and ecosystems around the world. A comic book based on the show, meant to be used an as educational tool for kids, was briefly distributed to museums and schools at no cost in the mid-2000s.

Capturing the high drama of the Serengeti’s distinctive wildlife up close.

Documentary series in which animatronic spy creatures infiltrate the animal world to explore their complex emotions.

This feature-length RealD™ 3D experience was filmed with revolutionary aerial devices and techniques to fly right alongside birds. This breathtaking journey will take viewers across the world’s most iconic landscapes to the heart of the greatest animal spectacles on Earth: snow geese dash through Monument Valley and New York City, vultures ascend miles above the earth then dive down to huge wildebeest herds below, scarlet macaws race at breakneck speed through the rainforest. Using unique, state-of-the-art 3D cameras in barely accessible and highly dangerous places, the audience has never before been so close to the drama and beauty of nature until now.

Go deep beneath the waves – on a spy mission to the depths of the ocean. Amazing hidden cameras give incredible perspectives on the ingenious creatures that call it home.

Penguins - Spy in the Huddle spends nearly a year in the close company of penguins, deploying 50 spycams to capture as never before the true character of these birds.

The story of Suki, a lioness cub, who rebels against her mother and her Pride to mate with an unsuitable lion from the other side of the river.

Weird Nature is a 2002 documentary television series produced by John Downer Productions for the BBC and Discovery Channel. The series features strange behavior in nature—specifically, the animal world. The series now airs on the Science Channel. The series took three years to make and a new filming technique was used to show animal movements in 3D. Each episode, however, tended to end with a piece about how humans are probably the oddest species of all. For example, in the end of the episode about locomotion, the narrator states how unusual it is for a mammal to be bipedal. In the episode about defences, the narrator explains that humans have no real natural defences, save for their big brains.

A chronicle of the birth and development of one penguin chick, born late and smaller than any of its fellow toddlers.

The award-winning team behind Penguins - Spy in the Huddle use hidden cameras to go into the heart of the dolphins' world, offering the chance to encounter dolphins up-close.

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Nature documentary that takes a breathtaking flight on the wings of birds across six continents and experiences some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view.

Smell your way across an ocean as a salmon does. See, through the multi-aspected eye of a fly, what a human hand looks like when it is about to strike. Amazing effects reveal the secrets of animal perception.

Shot mainly using spy cameras, this film gets closer than ever before to the world's greatest land predator. As the film captures its intimate portrait of polar bears' lives, it reveals how their intelligence and curiosity help them cope in a world of shrinking ice.

More than three years in the making, Earthflight uses state-of-the-art technology and sophisticated camera techniques to bring the world to us as seen by birds. Prepare to embark on an amazing voyage, as they migrate; crossing continents; interacting with wildlife phenomena and other natural wonders from their uniquely privileged position.

A look at some of the planet's great gatherings, creatures that come together in inconceivable numbers - sometimes in millions, billions, and even trillions. Included are bats and bees, locust and ants, monarch butterflies in Mexico, 17-year cicada hatches, grunion in the Sea of Cortez and carp in the Mississippi River, sardine runs off the coast of South Africa, super flocks of parakeets in the Australian Outback, mayflies on the 4th of July, and even penguins and wildebeest. Some gather to breed or to migrate, some for protection, some simply to keep warm in the cold. But in the process, a kind of super-organism is created in which individual intelligence is superseded by a collective consciousness that shares information and moves with a single purpose for the benefit of all. Check out swarm intelligence, essentially a living embodiment of social media in the natural world.

The franchise returns with a brand new wintertime entry about animals that live in the coldest places in the world.

The series will deploy the most advanced Spy Creatures ever created to infiltrate groups of apes and monkeys. Sophisticated AI will enhance the Spies ability to communicate, allowing them to use the same calls and facial expressions as the primates they encounter.

Each year over 1.2 million wildebeest travel across the vast Serengeti plains and Kenya's Masai Mara on a 1,800 kilometer circular journey, relentlessly followed by every big African predator. Revolutionary spy cams - airborne, swimming or disguised as rocks, skulls or dung - reveal the Great Wildebeest Migration from entirely new perspectives. This 2-part series focuses on the growing-up of a calf as he takes his first steps, faces his first deadly perils and tries to cross crocodile-infested rivers. It combines natural humor with exciting drama and gripping music.

Attenborough's team travels the globe for up-close looks at polar bears, grizzlies, pandas and other fascinating bear species.