We’re excited to share the trailer for our brand-new four part series for BBC One and iPlayer: Hamza’s Hidden Wild Isles which follows wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin as he reveals hidden wildlife gems from across the four countries of the UK.
Tune into the first episode on BBC One this Sunday 12th October at 6.15pm.
Here’s an interview with Hamza, diving into our year-long journey where he shares some of the highlights and challenges of filming wildlife of the British Isles – as well as his aspirations for the series.
Why did you want to explore the British Isles specifically?
The British Isles are one of the most important groups of islands worldwide when it comes to wildlife and we have some incredible species that I think are worth filming. As it’s so close to home, it’s something that I love and know very well, as I’ve been filming it for at least the last 20 years.
What was the most special moment you captured whilst you were traveling the British Isles?
Everything, but that’s not an answer!
I absolutely loved filming sharks. I’m normally there with a long lens, sat on the side of a jeep filming wildlife, but to be given the opportunity to pick up an underwater camera, go out into the Celtic deep, 35 miles from mainland Wales and film blue sharks for the very first time, was out of this world. It was so special and to see them so close and then bumping my dome on my camera was just so beautiful and to be able to share that with the public is fantastic.
Was there anything that you saw that you thought you would never get to see, let alone capture on camera?
There’s so many things in this series that I had a wishlist to try and film, and the prime example is Bitterns. I am an avid birder, I hear them all the time, I’ve seen them a handful of times, but to be able to witness and film a mating sequence like that was so beautiful. Especially the booming, I personally feel that no one’s ever really filmed it like that before, so it was really incredible.
For probably the first time in the UK, we filmed blue fin tuna off the coast of Devon, seen in such good quality. They were so close that we were able to film them from land, we didn’t even need to go out on a boat to get it, that’s a first as well.
What was it like filming with your nieces and encouraging their enthusiasm for wildlife?
It’s wonderful to be able to share the natural world with the next generation. We should be educating them about it, so they have a chance to take care of it in the future when it’s their turn. To able to spend that good uncle-niece time with both of them, and seeing their smiles, really put things into perspective.
You’ll see in the sequence one of them says, “You look stressed,” and I’m like, “I am stressed”, because I’m thinking about the production and what if the badgers don’t come out. But to see it from her perspective, was like a breath of fresh air, and reminded me that I should be enjoying this, I shouldn’t be panicking. And lo and behold, the badgers turned up and you see them just beaming with smiles and I’m beaming too, I think I even danced at the end of it, I was so happy.
What was the trickiest animal to capture or which ones of the longest capture?
We had roughly two days to capture each sequence, and I would say the most difficult factor was probably the weather. When we were out in the Wirral, we thought we were going to get a beautiful high tide coming in and going out, but then the heavens opened. It was horrendous weather coming through but it kind of played to our favour. We kept on filming and it brought a surge, so the tide was even higher and the birds congregated even more.
The weather in the UK, as we all know, can sometimes play havoc, but you’ve just got to roll with it and you’ve got to play to your strengths. I didn’t always win. I didn’t always capture the animal, but that’s okay because it’s Mother Nature.
Did you meet anybody while you were traveling the British Isles who particularly inspired you?
There are so many people that I met throughout this series that opened my eyes to a whole new world and they inspired me in so many different ways. The one that comes to mind is Nigel Hand, the gentleman who absolutely loves adders. Adders have a bad reputation. However, Nigel paints a beautiful picture of this gentle creature, where all they want is to be left alone in order for them to reproduce. You see Nigel break down for his love of adders and because he’s unsure about their future. He’s been working so hard for the past 15 years to bring their numbers back up, and it’s wonderful to see that.
You also meet Pam and Tim, a beautiful couple that showed me an animal that is new to science and that’s found here in the British Isles and it just filled me with joy knowing that there are still more animals to discover. It’s a little cordyceps, that lives on a spider called ‘Gibellula attenboroughii’, is the Latin name, and it’s just phenomenal to be able to hear stuff like that.
How important do you think it is that we come together to enjoy and protect nature?
For most people, if they don’t know about the natural world that’s around us, it’s very easy to turn a blind eye to it. My goal in this series is to try and spread the word of the natural world to as many people as possible, to give them the opportunity to feel an emotional connection to it and hopefully that means they will start to care about it too.
What makes British wildlife so special? And do you think that it gets overlooked in favour of more exotic wildlife?
British wildlife is often overlooked because it we’re such a small island compared to the rest of the world, but in my opinion we have just as good, if not better wildlife in the UK. Because it’s such a small group of islands, we can look after it so much better, but it also means we can affect it so much easier. What I want is for people to understand that we should be affecting it in a positive way.
Throughout the series, you see me speaking to a lot of people who are doing some real good work for the natural world here in the UK, and hopefully that means more habitats, more biodiversity, better wildlife.
What do you hope viewers take away from this series?
I really hope whoever’s watching this series thinks about how wonderful the natural world is around us, how accessible it can be to all of us. You can see wildlife everywhere – if you’re in the middle of a city centre you can see wildlife, in the Hebrides you can see wildlife, if you’re in a cave you can see wildlife. I want them to see my joy, my nerdiness for the natural world, my childlike wonder of Mother Nature and that I’m learning along the way. I’m forever learning. I will never stop learning and may the people who are watching this documentary learn something from it as well.