The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet (2021)
5 x 60’ for BBC and Discovery+, first transmitting October 2021
Available fro streaming on BBC iPLayer and Discovery + USA
The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet is a beautiful and inspiring five-part landmark documentary series that will finally give us reason to hope for a brighter future on Planet Earth. Led by Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, and Sir David Attenborough, and featuring other members of the Earthshot Prize Council including singer Shakira and footballer Dani Alves, the series looks past the problems we face and onto the solutions that promise to deliver us all a sustainable world in which both nature and humanity can thrive.
The five great missions of the prize – the five “Earthshots”– are investigated, one by one, in the five episodes. We will discover the depth of the challenge we face, hear the stories of inspiring people around the world who are already finding incredible solutions, and Prince William will introduce us to the remarkable Finalists for this, the first ever year of the Earthshot Prize.
While the scale of our environmental challenges can be difficult to face, the optimistic promise of the Earthshot Prize will give us all a new insight into the coming sustainable revolution, and new energy to move forward into a better, more stable world together.
Series Producer: Jonnie Hughes
Production Manager: Laura Meacham
Senior Technical Lead: Daniel Beare
Finalist Films Producer: Lizzie Green
Executive Producers: Keith Scholey, Colin Butfield
Episodes
1. Protect and Restore Nature
Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, is joined by Sir David Attenborough, a member of his Earthshot Prize Council to explore how we may best protect and restore nature. Sir David explains exactly what about our approach to modern life is causing a global decline in biodiversity, and how damaging this decline will be to our own lives. But, he reveals, we know how to halt and reverse the loss of wildlife. Taking inspiration from extraordinary projects in Yellowstone Park, the Kenyan Maasai lands, and on the Knepp Estate in the UK, we learn that if By valuing biodiversity appropriately and by changing our habits so that we manage our land with biodiversity in mind, the wild can return, and when it does so, it will return with speed and vigour. At the end of the episode, the Prince introduces us to this year’s finalists for the Earthshot Prize to Protect and Restore Nature.
Producer/Director: Dan Huertas
Assistant Producers: Claire Sharrock, Matt Brierley
Researcher:Jess Hall, Roxy Furman
Production Co-Ordinator: Hayley Slater
Trainee PC: Liberty Rowe
2. Fix Our Climate
Prince William, Sir David Attenborough and Christiana Figueres, the inspirational diplomat who led negotiations for the Paris Agreement on climate change, woman behind the Paris climate agreement, host Fix Our Climate - one of the five goals of the Earthshot Prize. Highlighting inspiring and often unexpected solutions to the Climate challenge, like creating diamonds from the air and protecting the Great Whales, the programme reveals the positive changes already taking place across the globe as well as examining the causes of our changing climate. The three pioneering ideas, nominated for the first ever Earthshot Prize to Fix Our Climate, are revealed.
Producer/Director: Clare Dornan
Assistant Producers: Tash Filer
Researcher: Roxy Furman
Production Co-Ordinator: Samantha Weeks, Elliot Jenkins
3. Clean Our Air
This film explores the global issue of air pollution and the toll it’s taking on our health. Led by Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, and featuring members of the Earthshot Prize Council including Sir David Attenborough and former Japanese Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki, the episode uncovers the problems and personal stories of people who are directly affected by air pollution. We also hear the stories of inspiring people from around the world who are working on solutions to Clean Our Air, including the shortlisted finalists for this year’s Earthshot Prize. We learn that by transforming our cities, transport and polluting industrial systems and harnessing both technology and nature, cleaning our air is not only possible, but we are already making steps towards a healthier, less polluting future.
Producer/Director: Amy Anderson
Assistant Producers: Erica Wilson, Sophia Luzac
Researcher: Roxy Furman
Production Co-Ordinator: Samantha Cook
4. Revive Our Oceans
This film explores how we may stop damaging our oceans and begin to enable their revival. Led by Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, and featuring Earthshot Prize Council members Sir David Attenborough and singer-songwriter, Shakira, who has spent her whole life living by the sea, the episode discovers what it is that we are currently doing that causes damage to the oceans, and finds inspiring people and projects across the world that have found ways to revive ocean life. We learn that the ocean can recover well and at speed if we treat it in the right way. At the end of the episode, Prince William introduces us to the finalists for the first ever Earthshot Prize to Revive Our Oceans.
Producer/Director: Jon Clay
Assistant Producers: Claire Sharrock, Matt Brierley
Researcher: Jess Hall, Roxy Furman
Production Co-Ordinator: Ana Taboada
5. Build a Waste-Free World
Prince William, founder of the Earthshot Prize, is joined by Prize Council Members Sir David Attenborough and Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, an indigenous rights spokesperson from Chad, who explore the story of our wastefulness, and how we may move to a waste-free world. The film discovers the extent of our careless approach to producing waste, both non-biodegradable and biodegradable, and discovers that we can solve the waste problem by reimagining our production lines as materials circles, ensuring that the waste from one process becomes the resource for the next. At the close of the episode, Prince William introduces the finalists for the first ever Earthshot Prize to Build A Waste-Free World, and reflects on the entire series, and the scale of the challenges that face us as a species.
Producer/Director: David Heath
Assistant Producers: Erica Wilson, Struan Kane
Researcher: Jess Hall
Production Co-Ordinator: Samantha Weeks, Elliot Jenkins