The Blue Planet

Although 70 per cent of our planet is covered by water, the oceans and many of their inhabitants - such as the blue whale - remain an unexplored mystery. This edition travels to the very depths of the seas to reveal a spectacular variety of life - from alien monsters of the deep to pack-hunting killer whales attacking a grey whale calf. Also features Making Waves, which shows how some of the sequences in the series were captured.

More people have walked on the moon than have travelled to the very depths of the deep ocean. David Attenborough journeys into the abyss to show us, for the very first time, strange creatures straight out of the film Alien, many of which are new to science. Terrifying fish with massive teeth that eat prey twice their size and weird jellyfish that flash in the darkness. And deep sea sharks never filmed before and submerged mountain ranges and volcanoes far larger than anything on land.

This programme focuses on the predatory skills of some of the most charismatic hunters found on the planet: whales, dolphins, tuna, shark and rapier-nosed billfish. The open ocean is unimaginably immense - itcovers more than 360 million square kilometres of the Earth's surface. Much of this huge expanse of seawater is marine desert with virtually no sign of life. Yet the fastest and most powerful survive, playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek with their prey. This charts how they track down prey in the seemingly featureless seas, following the extraordinary life of yellowfin tuna from a minute egg to a 200 kilogram, voracious predatory giant.

A look at the survival techniques of creatures that endure the harsh conditions of the Arctic and Antarctic. For six months a year, all is dark at the poles and the temperature drops to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Some animals manage to survive the winter, while others are forced to migrate ahead of the advancing ice. In the Arctic the polar bear is the top predator, catching seals on the ice and forcing seabirds to nest high up on cliffs. In Antartica the flightless penguins have no ground-based predators to deal with but lurking in the water is the constant threat from leopard seals.

This programme explores seasonal changes in the richest waters on Earth, where the annual cycle of the sun drives an explosion of life. Featuring an extraordinary variety of marine animals, including seals, dolphins, jellyfish and the bizarre walking handfish.

Amazingly beautiful and complex, coral reefs develop from humble beginnings. Tiny larvae settle and then over hundreds of years the intricate and fragile reefs that we so enjoy grow, inch by inch. Reefs areadorned with spectacularly colourful life, but it is no tropical paradise. Space is at a premium and even the coral itself fights to survive. And then, at night, the sharks come out to hunt. Layer upon layer the coral supports innumerable animals, but one big storm can threaten the entire community.

This edition explores a force so powerful that it moves oceans - the tides. All over the world tides create opportunities for marine life: giant sting rays glide on currents for a rest, the fastest snail of all surfs waves in pursuit of dinner, minute crabs play football on the beach, racoons binge and, in a unique sequence, dolphins play a deadly game of catch. For in the ocean, each turn of the tide spells life or death, somewhere.

From the open oceans, millions of sea birds are forced to come into land to breed. Sea eagles steal kittiwake chicks from their nesting ledges. Turtles lay their eggs in the sand and marine mammals haul themselves out to fight on the beaches. Sea lions emerge from the kelp to give birth, while killer whales come crashing in on the surf to snatch the sea lion's young.