The MANE event

GORDON BUCHANAN on capturing the lion's share of the action for a new docuseries

- STEVEN PERKINS

BIG CATS 24/7
SUNDAY, 8PM, BBC2 WILDLIFE (BOX SET, BBC iPLAYER)

Regal lions, stealthy leopards and graceful cheetahs take centre stage as BBC2’s new wildlife epic Big Cats 24/7 transports viewers to one of Africa’s last natural sanctuaries.

Filmed across six months in Botswana’s sprawling Okavango Delta wilderness, the six-parter uses cutting-edge drone technology to keep track of the assorted felines from the air and on the ground, while special low-light cameras monitor their behaviour as night falls.

The series also shows how international wildlife cinematographers, including award-winning Scottish filmmaker Gordon Buchanan, Vianet Djenguet and Anna Dimitriadis, collaborated with Botswana’s Natural History Film Unit, led by Brad Bestelink, to capture unprecedented footage of these majestic species.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Gordon, 52, tells TV Times why it’s set to be a ‘roarsome’ adventure…

What can you reveal about the animals you followed for this series, Gordon?

I was filming mostly with the male lions. Madumo and Big Toe are the heads of the pride, and their story is extraordinary. Usually, you get knocked off that top spot after maybe two or three years, but they’ve been pride males for six years now, just by being two huge, formidable lions who can see off any threat.

The first episode sees a huge wildfire break out in the Okavango Delta. How did that impact its big-cat residents?