Return to the FROZEN PLANET

Over a decade since Frozen Planet first aired on the BBC, the series is back, offering extraordinary new footage of life in the most extreme environments on Earth

- SARAH MCPHERSON

IT TOOK OVER FOUR YEARS TO make Frozen Planet II. Executive producer Mark Brownlow shares his highlights of filming on all seven continents and across 18 countries to create a series that tells an urgent story about the effects of climate change on our world.

Frozen Planet (2011) looked at the passing of the seasons at the two poles. How does Frozen Planet II build on what came before?

I was a huge fan of the original series, but a decade has passed since it aired and we now have a far greater understanding of our frozen habitats. A decade ago we were still debating whether climate change was caused by humans or not!

This series tells the bigger story of all of our frozen worlds – which, incredibly, cover one-fifth of our planet – at a time when they’re changing faster than ever before. So, we go to the Arctic and Antarctic, but we also climb the world’s highest peaks, dive into icy lakes and enter snowbound deserts.

We celebrate the wondrous life in these fragile ice worlds, but also land the message that they are changing rapidly on our watch, with potentially profound consequences for all of humanity. We focus on a singular narrative around climate change. It’s the story of our time.

What cast of animal stars can we look forward to?

A greater diversity of locations and habitats means a very broad palate of characters. We still feature the classic ice species, such as killer whales, narwhals and polar bears, but alongside them we also include snow monkeys, pandas, Siberian tigers, Pallas’s cats and Amur leopards.