By Alex Low
The ocean has long been portrayed as a world of extraordinary visual splendour: turquoise waters, pristine coral reefs and shafts of sunlight illuminating an underwater paradise. Yet beneath the surface, reality is often less idyllic. Visibility can be poor, waters can turn murky, and some of the most fascinating marine encounters unfold far removed from the picture-perfect imagery audiences have come to expect.
It is a less familiar reality that BBC’s Blue Planet III sets out to capture.
Discussing the decision to retain some cloudier underwater footage, producer Lara Bickerton explains that tropical seas are not invariably the crystal-clear paradises audiences might imagine. Mangroves, in particular, can be remarkably murky. “That’s not reality,” she says of the idealised image of the underwater world.
For a franchise synonymous with spectacular imagery, the distinction is significant. It reflects a determination to portray the ocean as it really is, rather than simply as audiences expect to see it.
Getting Closer to the Natural World
The opening episode, “Tropical Seas”, offers an early glimpse of this approach through a sequence following a dolphin using a marine sponge as a hunting tool while foraging along the seabed.
Filmed in a bay where visibility was often poor, the sequence benefited from camera technology that allowed the production team to get closer to the animal and film for extended periods. By reducing the amount of water between the camera and its subject, the team captured clearer footage despite the challenging conditions.
For Bickerton, such developments are part of a broader effort to immerse viewers in the natural world. “What we’ve tried to do throughout the series is just get much closer to those animals,” she explains.
The results are particularly striking in smaller encounters: extreme close-ups of fiddler crabs, their eyes seemingly peering straight into the camera, or the intricate movements of creatures that might otherwise pass unnoticed. Even the smallest animals emerge as compelling characters.
Predator-and-prey interactions also feature prominently, although Bickerton says the team did not deliberately build the episode around them. Rather, these stories emerged from the extraordinary biodiversity of tropical waters.
For producer James Brickell, who oversees the latter half of the series, the struggle for survival is an essential part of the natural world. Together, these encounters take audiences through moments of wonder, amusement and suspense.
From Tropical Paradises to the Great Blue
Beyond the colourful familiarity of “Tropical Seas”, the series ventures into the vastness of “Open Ocean”, which Bickerton considers an exceptional expression of what Blue Planet represents. Its sheer scale, however, makes it a more intimidating introduction for audiences, prompting the producers to place it second.
“Seasonal Seas” follows, exploring temperate waters where shifting seasons and changing conditions continually reshape the lives of marine animals.
Yet the series’ fascination with marine life extends beyond extraordinary behaviour. As with its predecessor, the spectacle serves a larger purpose: drawing attention to the environmental pressures threatening these ecosystems.
If Blue Planet II helped bring the consequences of plastic pollution into public consciousness, its successor approaches the environmental crisis through the experiences of individual animals.
Bickerton points to a clownfish sequence in “Tropical Seas”, which follows the animal through a coral bleaching event. Rather than presenting climate change as an abstract issue, the production reveals its consequences through a creature audiences have come to care about.
That emotional connection is central to the series’ ambition: to inspire an appreciation of the ocean and, ultimately, a desire to protect it. Each habitat faces its own challenges, from coral bleaching in tropical seas to increasingly severe storms in seasonal waters and overfishing in the open ocean.
The Connections Beneath the Surface
The journey continues into “Polar Waters”, where the narrative shifts towards the connections linking seemingly distant marine environments.
Brickell recalls a sequence off the coast of Japan involving a small fish known as a lumpsucker, whose life is influenced by polar currents. Its journey to find a mate illustrates how the movement of water around the planet can shape the lives of even the smallest marine inhabitants.
Then comes “The Deep”, an environment that might initially seem the most alien of all. Yet Brickell challenges the assumption that the deeper one travels, the more hostile the natural world becomes.
The deep ocean may be inhospitable to humans, but its inhabitants are adapted to darkness and cold. Indeed, conditions can be remarkably stable, even more so than in polar and temperate waters. What seems hostile to humans is simply home to the creatures that have evolved to live there.
Together, these episodes reveal an ocean that is not a collection of isolated environments, but an interconnected system whose influence extends far beyond its shores. As Brickell points out, roughly a third of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine organisms. Wherever we live, our lives remain closely tied to the health of the seas.
A Familiar Voice, a Continuing Legacy
There is, of course, one familiar presence anchoring the series. Sir David Attenborough‘s narration has long been inseparable from the identity of Blue Planet, and his enthusiasm for the natural world remains undiminished.
For Brickell, who first worked with him three decades ago, sending stories to Attenborough for review is rather like having one’s homework marked. His suggestions, he says, are invariably polite, but carry the authority of someone who has arguably seen more of the world’s oceans than any other person alive.
For Bickerton, hearing Attenborough narrate her work for the first time was an altogether more emotional experience. During an early commentary recording, she recalls looking across at the episode’s producer, only to realise they were both fighting back tears.
It was a special moment, made all the more remarkable by Attenborough’s continued energy and curiosity. His familiar voice lends continuity to a series that has evolved considerably in both its filmmaking techniques and environmental outlook.
Looking Towards the Future
That evolution finds its culmination in “Future Seas”, the sixth and final episode, which turns its attention to marine conservation and the challenges ahead.
Where Blue Planet II helped expose the scale of the environmental crisis, its successor arrives with a more optimistic proposition: that we now understand considerably more about how to address it.
“We have a blueprint to save the ocean,” Brickell says.
The emphasis shifts from documenting environmental decline to exploring the possibilities for recovery. Rather than leaving audiences with a sense of helplessness, Blue Planet III seeks to demonstrate that meaningful solutions are within reach.
For all its technological advances and extraordinary discoveries, the series ultimately returns to a simple idea: understanding the natural world is an essential step towards protecting it. The ocean’s inhabitants may occupy environments vastly different from our own, but their future remains inseparable from ours.
