Mike Rutzen

Natural World is a nature documentary television series broadcast annually on BBC Two and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history brand. It is currently the longest-running series in its genre on British television, with more than 400 episodes broadcast since its inception in 1983. Natural World is produced by the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, but individual programmes can be in-house productions, collaborative productions with other broadcasters or films made and distributed by independent production companies and purchased by the BBC. Natural World programmes are often broadcast as PBS Nature episodes in the USA. Since 2008, most Natural World programmes have been shot and broadcast in high definition.

"Acclaimed Cape Town filmmakers the Foster Brothers, in their groundbreaking documentary Sharkman, have something important to tell us about sharks. But the question is: will you be listening? You might be too busy watching in amazement as a four metre White Shark – weighing 1½ tons – cruises the big blue with a diver clutching her dorsal fin. Every spare synapse will be used up as the same diver gently wrestles a Tiger shark into catatonia, its oven-wide head and tooth-riddled jaw inches from his face. You will be too busy gawping as Caribbean Reef and Black Tip sharks cuddle in the lap of Gansbaai free diver Mike Rutzen, also known as South Africa's "shark whisperer"..." (excerpt from a press article by Steve Pike, about the film commissioned by Animal Planet and Discovery Channel to, acclaimed Cape Town filmmakers, the Foster Brothers).