Natural History Museum: World of Wonder Series 2

This 4 x 60 minute series will air weekly from Wednesday 10 May at 8pm on Channel 5 and will be available to stream and download via My5.

Narrated by acclaimed actor Bill Nighy, this returning series builds on the success of the first series and takes an unmissable look at one of the greatest and most popular museums in the world – the Natural History Museum, London. The series is produced by award-winning production company, The Garden.

We meet the teams keeping the museum up and running and the scientists working behind the scenes uncovering incredible discoveries about our natural world; from billion-year-old meteorites and dinosaur fossils to the wildlife in the Museum’s own garden. They are on a mission to learn more about the natural world and protect it for future generations.

Ground-breaking science

Ashley King, Future Leader Fellow, UKRI, makes the greatest discovery of his career as he studies the Winchcombe Meteorite – the first meteorite to land and be recovered in the UK in 30 years – as he hopes to answer if meteorites hold the key to all life on Earth.  

Dr Erica McAlister, Senior Curator, heads to the beautiful Knepp Estate in Sussex in search of new insect species, and to discover if their re-wildling project is boosting the wildlife there.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Museum pays a visit to the museum’s 40,000 bat specimens. He sees how, incredibly, a strain of coronavirus has been detected in some bat specimens which are hundreds of years old showing how bats have been able to live with the virus for centuries. 

In Wiltshire Dr Tim Ewin explores a quarry where thousands of marine fossils have been uncovered. He unlocks the mystery of what happened 167 million years ago to wipe out so many creatures in one terrible event.

Dr Tori Herridge, Research Fellow, and Piotr Cuber, Molecular Biologist, visit Kent where the Wilder Blean Project has introduced bison to the landscape to re-energise the ancient woodland there. We see how soil sampling for DNA can monitor improvements in the woodland.

Engaging Events

The series also aims to show how the museum engages the public with its science through an exciting array of events and activities.

We follow Events Producer, Georgina Hallett, as she manages our popular Dinosnores event for 300 children after hours!

The Special Events team pull off the awards ceremony for the world’s biggest wildlife photography competition, attracting around 40,000 entrants from over 90 countries to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

And an after-hours Halloween themed event gives visitors in fancy dress a chance to find out more about the spookier corners of the natural world whilst also enjoying a silent disco in one of the greatest dancehalls you could imagine.

Much more

Down in the basement Kieran Miles, Fossil Preparator, is delicately repairing a 67-million-year-old triceratops.

Learning Facilitator, Kathryn Whitfield, shows surprised visitors some dinosaur poo, engaging children with objects they can touch and hold.

And it’s all in a day’s work for Hattie Frakes, Visitor Experience Manager, as she opens the museum’s great doors which welcome five million visitors annually.

Notes to editors

Natural History Museum media contact:

Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654 / 07799690151 

Email: press@nhm.ac.uk  

The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited indoor attraction in the UK. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.

It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens accessed by researchers from all over the world both in person and via over 50 billion digital data downloads to date. The Museum’s 350 scientists are finding solutions to the planetary emergency from biodiversity loss through to the sustainable extraction of natural resources.

The Museum uses its global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to inform, inspire and empower everyone to make a difference for nature. We welcome millions of visitors through our doors each year, our website has had 17 million visits in the last year and our touring exhibitions have been seen by around 20 million people in the last 10 years.

Channel 5 is a public service broadcaster and the UK’s third largest commercial TV station. Launched in March 1997, Channel 5 has been part of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) since its acquisition in September 2014.

Channel 5 and its digital brands – 5STAR, 5USA, 5Select, 5Action and the on-demand service My5 – offer a diverse range of issue-led documentaries & popular factual, accessible history, stunning natural history, premium drama and critically-acclaimed children’s, news and current affairs programming. Through its agenda-driving commissions, Channel 5 leads on societal issues from inequality to inner city gang life, homelessness to mental health, aiming to tell the story of modern Britain by reflecting the lives of people across the nation.

The Garden is one of the UK’s leading production companies, known for producing premium factual television at scale, for award-winning documentaries and for innovative formats. It makes programmes for broadcasters in the UK, the US and around the world, and has had its work shown in over a hundred territories.  Since it was founded in 2010, the Garden has produced more than 500 hours of memorable and ground-breaking television.  Key productions include the double-BAFTA-nominated and RTS-award-winning series 24 Hours in A&E and BAFTA-nominated 24 Hours in Police Custody. It produced the BAFTA-winning Bedlam – filmed inside Britain’s most famous psychiatric institution – and the BAFTA-winning Gun No 6 – a feature documentary in which a group of ex-offenders tracked all the crimes of Britain’s deadliest illegal gun.  Among its other hits over the last decade are BBC series Inside Claridge’s, BAFTA-nominated format The Audience, double BAFTA-nominated Operation Live, BAFTA-nominated Keeping Britain Alive, the first ‘Slow TV’ films on UK television, and Cancer Research UK’s award-winning ‘Right Now’ campaigns. Since 2013 The Garden has been part of ITV Studios.