Abingdon Living Jan - Feb 2020

THE NATURAL
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Mike Gunton is a key producer within the BBC
Natural History Unit, which is the world’s largest
production unit. It is best known for its highly regarded
nature documentaries, often presented by Sir David
Attenborough. Here he talks to Sally Thomson about his
early fascination for frogs, his delight in seeing young
people taking an interest in the environment and the
echoes of the natural world in our own day-to-day lives
Whilst you may not recognise his face,
you will certainly know Mike Gunton's
extraordinary work. Mike has worked
on all of the BBC Earth shows and in
particular the Planet Earth II TV series and
has had a long association with Sir David
Attenborough. Mike will be appearing
on the Planet Earth II tour along with Liz
Bonnin, who is the host, and will offer
some amazing insights into the footage
the arenas will be watching. He is also
involved in the Seven Worlds One Planet
show on BBC1, which was launched
October 27th.
Where did your career start? When you
left university at Cambridge, what was
the next step?
I did a doctorate in Zoology at
Cambridge. I was quite interested in film
making. There were grants that could be
applied for, so while I was there I started
making films. I actually made a film which
I sold which was about Cambridge life.
It’s one of those weird things, I ended
up playing cricket with a Don, who said
to me “What are you going to do when
you leave college?”. I said “Well I’m very
interested in film making and I would love
to work at the BBC.” He said “Ah I know
somebody at the BBC”. And it actually
turned out it was somebody at the OU
(Open University) who was an academic.
When I enquired, I found out the BBC
side wanted a researcher.
It was all very fortunate timing. They
offered me the job of researcher, which I
did for about 6 months, then concluded
my PHD, then returned to work for them
for about 3 years, during which time the
OU were really starting to look at crossing
over with several other national television
departments, so I actually ended up
working on projects the Natural History
and the Science department.
I got to know people and the opportunity
came up work with what we were being
told was David Attenborough’s last
series, The Trials of Life. I grabbed it with
both hands and never looked back.
If we look back to when you were
13, your fascination with frogs
subsequently lead you to taking
photographs of them. That was your
understanding then that we did not
see things as well through our own
eyes, but when you had a camera you
were able to see and understand a
little bit more about the creatures that
you were taking photographs of. Was
that the catalyst?
I would love to say that it was a ‘ta da!’
moment, but no. Most people who are
interested in animals were interested in
lions and elephants and tigers and things
like that. Of course I liked them too, but
they didn’t really excite me. What excited
me was the slightly weirder creatures,
because you would have to take a
slightly different perspective.
With a lion you can stand back with a
pair of binoculars and see one. But with
these little tiny creatures you do have to
think about how can I really get to see
this. There was something about the
combination of a bit of science, a bit of
imagery, psychology but also the sense
of mysteries that you can reveal by using
something to draw back the curtain. And
that really started I think when I came
here, to The Natural History Unit. A lot
of developments in wildlife film making
happen in concert with technological
changes. Life on Earth (1979) and
Living Planet (1984) had been by David
Attenborough and they had been real
mould-breaking shows, and effectively
defined every show that you now see.
At that time we were all of a similar age,
around our mid-twenties and all getting
into the business of natural history film
making, and there was a lot of innovative
thinking; ‘How can we get cameras and
lenses into positions to reveal different
things about natural history?’. I had a
couple of friends here who were really
interested in ‘Macro Photography’,
filming small things like little tiny frogs,
and there were all sorts of unusual
lenses being used. Suddenly, you were
effectively creating a different filmic
grammar because the way you move and
position a camera had to be rethought;
how you light it and tell the stories.
One of the things I loved about this is
that in some ways you could direct the
stories more. When you are filming a
lion hunt, you can’t really direct that,
you just have to film what happens.
But when you are telling the story of
a female frog, who’s trick is that she
carries her baby tadpole on her back
and climbs to the top of a tree and looks
for a bromeliad to put it on, that’s an
extraordinary piece of evolution and
behaviour and it’s so empathetic with
people if you tell the story in a way
that connects that empathy. Of course
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