The four SEASONS

STEPHEN FRY on a landmark series charting the impact of winter, spring, summer and autumn on our world

-  JUDY EWENS

A YEAR ON PLANET EARTH
NEW SUNDAY, 8PM, ITV1 NATURE (BOX SET, ITVX)

Epic landscapes, extraordinary animals and extreme weather are at the heart of ITV1’s new natural-history showcase, A Year on Planet Earth.

The six-parter (the first four eps will air over the next four weeks on ITV1, with the remaining two available on ITVX) sees Stephen Fry explore how our annual journey around the sun affects nearly all life on Earth.

‘The series concentrates on something about our planet that we often forget – it’s on a tilt. And it’s that which creates the seasons, and the seasons create, well, everything,’ says Stephen, 65.

Filmed across 60 locations over three years, the docuseries reveals how a variety of species, from cheetahs and chipmunks to giant pandas and polar bears, adapt to the challenges that the four seasons bring them.

Here, Stephen tells us more…

Where does your passion for wildlife come from?

Gosh. Well, I guess I owe a huge amount – and who doesn’t? – to David Attenborough and the BBC’s Natural History Unit, but also to the ITV Anglia series Survival [1961–2001], which I used to watch all through my childhood. It fed a growing and still undated curiosity about plants and animals, and the matchless drama of their daily struggles to eat, mate and bring up their young.

Which of the animals are your favourites?