WILD

BBC Cans Nature Doc Episode Over Fears It Might Upset Conservatives: Report

The episode in David Attenborough’s new series covers themes of damage to the natural world, and will now solely play online.

An episode of a new David Attenborough series will not be broadcast by the BBC on television over fears that its contents might be criticized by British conservatives, according to a report. Six episodes of the new series Wild Isles—which looks at the nature of the British Isles—have been filmed, but only five will be broadcast on the BBC’s flagship TV channel, BBC One. The sixth episode, which reportedly covers themes of damage done to nature, will instead only be made available through the BBC’s online iPlayer platform, according to the Guardian, with the newspaper saying that the decision was motivated by an anticipated backlash from lawmakers in Britain’s ruling Tory party and the country’s rightwing press. A BBC spokesperson told the Guardian that the sixth episode is a separate film, which was partly funded by the charities World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). “Wild Isles consists of five episodes: Our Precious Isles, Woodland, Grassland, Freshwater and Ocean,” the spokesperson said. “Saving Our Wild Isles is a separate film inspired by the series that was commissioned by the RSPB and WWF. We’ve acquired it for iPlayer.”