Court on camera

Filming bullfrogs and termites courting in South Africa changed the game for the BBC’s Nature Unit.

GENEVIEVE TERBLANCHE

The Mating Game

Season 1 Sundays BBC Earth (*184) 16:10

Camera operators spent two-and-a-half years in jungles, snow, mud, and scorching deserts across 60 locations around the world to capture animals at their most extraordinary – as they put on courtship displays for The Mating Game, a new BBC nature documentary series narrated by nature legend Sir David Attenborough. We spoke with series producer Jeff Wilson and episode producer Joe Loncraine about how they filmed termites and bullfrogs in South Africa after production was interrupted by the pandemic.

REACHING OUT

“It’s probably transformed the way that we’re going to work in the future in that we’re going to be a lot more collaborative and a lot more international with our filming partners. That was a really positive aspect of the COVID-19 experience,” says Jeff. “We couldn’t get our teams into South Africa, but we’ve got lots of great friends, like fantastic camera operators Hardus Vermaak and Russell MacLaughlin, both of whom are based just outside of Johannesburg.