Survival

Structure

For many years Survival was made by a subsidiary of Anglia Television, Survival Anglia Ltd (SAL), operating from the company's London offices at Brook House in Park Lane. In 1989, the unit moved to premises in Queen Street, Norwich, close to Anglia TV's headquarters.

Following the 1994 acquisition of Anglia by finance and media company MAI (now United Business Media), and the subsequent formation of United Broadcasting & Entertainment, Survival became part of United Wildlife (1996), linked with Partridge Productions, the Bristol based production company, but continuing to operate from the Norwich base until 2001.

Survival productions were the result of many months, even years, of work in the field. A camera team would typically follow a subject's story "from womb to tomb" to produce a one-hour Special, plus one or more related half-hours. Surplus footage and out-takes were held in a film library, that grew to more than 11 million feet of film and was made commercially available worldwide. SAL also operated one of the UK's biggest wildlife stills libraries, cataloguing and selling images provided by the camera teams.

Many of the world's leading wildlife photographers worked for Survival, including Des Bartlett and his wife Jen Bartlett, Alan Root working with his wife Joan Root, Dieter Plage, Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, Nick Gordon, Richard and Julia Kemp, Simon Trevor, Doug Allan, Joel Bennett, Liz and Tony Bomford, Cindy Buxton, Bob Campbell, Ashish Chandola, Bruce Davidson, Jeff Foott, Richard Matthews, Hugh Miles, Michael Pitts, Maurice Tibbles and Barbara Tyack.

Commentary for Survival shows was voiced by many leading actors over the years, including Orson Welles, Henry Fonda, David Niven, Anthony Hopkins, John Forsythe, Stefanie Powers, Gene Kelly, Timothy Dalton, Jason Robards, Peter Ustinov and Richard Widmark.

For UK transmissions, the celebrity narrators also included Sean Bean, Richard Briers, Rory Bremner, Ian Holm, Andrew Sachs, Brian Cox, Rolf Harris, Dennis Waterman, Rula Lenska, Toyah Willcox, Robert Powell, Tony Robinson, Diana Rigg and Gaby Roslin, along with naturalists Sir Peter Scott and David Bellamy.

History

In 1960, Aubrey Buxton introduced a regional nature programme on Anglia TV called Countryman and saw an opportunity to develop it as a new natural history strand for ITV. The first Survival, broadcast on 1 February 1961, featured the wildlife of London and was introduced by Buxton standing beside the lake in St James's Park, on a derelict bomb site and at other locations accessed in his Bentley. Called The London Scene, the production was facilitated by the backing of Associated-Rediffusion, the then London ITV company.

Buxton, a leading naturalist, who became chief executive and later chairman of Anglia Television, was producer and later executive producer of the series. He remained a guiding influence for over 30 years, and his vision and drive helped the series gain an international reputation for innovation and entertainment allied to scientific integrity. He was made a life peer, Baron Buxton of Alsa, in 1978, and served on many broadcasting, wildlife and countryside bodies.

The deputy editor of Rediffusion's current affairs programme This Week, Colin Willock, was loaned to Anglia for The London Scene and stayed to head Survival's creative team. He wrote or produced almost 500 films over the next three decades. Willock, who had a background in magazine journalism and was also a keen naturalist and wildfowler, used his punchy writing style to create scripts that complemented innovative camerawork and skilful editing. The result was a television genre that was christened "Pop-Nat-Hist", with many early programmes also utilising music commissioned from contemporary composers such as John Dankworth.

For more than 20 years, the day-to-day running of SAL was effectively in the hands of a three-man management team comprising Buxton, Willock and Mike Hay. As general manager and later executive director, Hay had responsibility for overseeing budgets and maintaining logistical links with film-makers in the field, as well as scanning the rushes that arrived in the cutting rooms.

Closely associated with the series from the outset was Sir Peter Scott, a pioneer of natural history programmes on television. He introduced and narrated many early Survival films as well as acting as scientific adviser to the series.

The title Survival was arrived at almost by default. In his book The World of Survival (Andre Deutsch, 1978), Willock revealed it was nearly called Tooth and Claw. "Both Aubrey and I objected to it on the grounds that nature was not really like that. In the end we came up with Survival. It was adopted for the reason that most titles are eventually adopted. No one could think of anything better."

Survival in the United States

In 1971, television broadcasting in the United States became subject to the Prime Time Access Rule, aimed at increasing diversity in programming by restricting the amount of network material that local stations owned by, or affiliated with, a network could air during peak viewing hours. The legislation opened the airwaves to cultural and documentary material, with Survival among the beneficiaries.

The New York advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, now JWT, arranged sponsorship by the Quaker Oats Company of the Survival one-hour The World of the Beaver and took a more general interest in Survival’s output. The networks and local station groups were short of documentary material and JWT started a syndication division to supply such programming with the primary objective of attracting advertisers. In partnership with JWT, Survival Anglia set up a New York office, and became the first UK television series to form its own American company. Two JWT executives, Jack Ball and Farlan Myers, were appointed to the SAL board. JWT also provided writers to adapt Survival shows for American audiences - Frank Gannon, Ken Thoren and Jim de Kay - while leading Hollywood actors were routinely engaged for the commentaries.

The link-up proved fundamental in bringing Survival to prominence in the world market during the 1970s and 1980s, and also was largely responsible for SAL winning a Queen's Award to Industry in 1974. Output of half-hour shows for the US market rose to 25 per year and led to expansion of the unit and a corresponding drive for fresh material. Syndicated half-hour shows aired under the title The World of Survival, narrated by John Forsythe from 1971 to 1982, while Survival one-hour films became a mainstay of the PBS Nature series following its launch in 1982 The business structure of SAL's American operation also helped Anglia Television's drama productions, including Orson Welles' Great Mysteries (1973–75) and Tales of the Unexpected (1979–88) to flourish in the US.

SAL also formed partnerships with RKO, Kodak and Home Box Office (HBO), and Survival half-hours were also shown on Discovery Channel.

Other collaborations

For more than 20 years, SAL had a partnership with Oxford Scientific Films (OSF), renowned for their innovative techniques, including macro-photography, and wide scientific reach. The OSF team provided dozens of films, mainly half-hours, for Survival. They included two series titled The Survival Factor on ITV (renamed Wildlife Chronicles for American transmission), the first narrated by the then James Bond actor Timothy Dalton and the other by singer and actress Toyah Willcox.

Survival was a founding partner of Wildscreen, one of the world's leading wildlife film festivals. Lord Buxton was a member of the formative committee, and the enterprise was born out of a collaboration between Survival and the BBC, along with the involvement of the WWF.

A collaboration between Anglia TV and The Jim Henson Company ran from 1994 to 1996 with a children's TV series titled The Animal Show With Stinky and Jake in which animal behaviour film from the Survival library was introduced by puppet characters in a talk-show format. Production took place at Anglia's Norwich studios and the series was sold to broadcasters in Europe and the U.S.

A collaboration between Anglia TV and Warner Bros Animation in 1996 lead to a VHS series, which blended Looney Tunes characters with live-action footage of wild animals from the Survival library (achieved through both editing in scenes from the original shorts with newly recorded dialogue, as well as digitally superimposing the characters onto the animal footage, for comedic commentary and reactions). These were narrated by Kathleen Helppie, and hosted by Bugs Bunny. These were released in themed volumes, under the titles of The World of Sea Lions with Bugs Bunny, The World of Apes with Bugs Bunny, The World of Lions with Bugs Bunny, The World of Elephants with Bugs Bunny and The World of Bears with Bugs Bunny.

Later years

The Survival unit re-located from London to Norwich in 1989. Changes in the structure and management of the organisation were followed by reformation of commercial broadcasting in Britain heralded by the Broadcasting Act 1990. Graham Creelman was appointed executive producer and director of Survival in 1988 and held the post for seven years, subsequently becoming managing director of Anglia Television (1996–2006). He had previously been a senior producer of factual programmes for Anglia, and headed the team that filmed Antarctica: The Last Frontier, a joint project between Survival and its parent company. He was succeeded as executive producer by Petra Regent, a writer and producer with the unit since 1982, who had produced another of Survival’s keynote programmes of the 1980s, The Nature of Russia.

In 1994 Anglia Television was acquired by finance and media group MAI, and subsequently became part of United Broadcasting & Entertainment, with Survival and Partridge Films linked in a natural history production business called United Wildlife. The mid-1990s saw a shift of emphasis in ITV towards presenter-led wildlife shows, notably those featuring Steve Irwin and Nigel Marven. Survival Specials continued to be commissioned, and generally achieved good audience ratings, although as stand-alone programmes in an increasingly volatile schedule, their slots were vulnerable to change or cancellation. Survival broke with tradition and engaged an on-camera presenter when Gaby Roslin fronted a six-part series of half-hour shows in 1995 under the title Predators, screened by ITV in a Sunday evening slot. Despite good ratings, however, a second series was not commissioned.

In 2000 Granada Television acquired United's broadcasting business and in January 2001, days before the 40th anniversary of Survival’s first broadcast, announced plans to close the Norwich operation with the loss of up to 35 jobs. Wildlife programming was to be consolidated under Granada Wild and based at Bristol. The decision, Granada said, was due to "the changing demands of UK and international broadcasters". It added that markets were "hungry for popular documentary techniques, the use of presenters and the inclusion of more science". The high cost of making blue chip nature documentaries was cited as a reason for Survival’s demise by some commentators, and disquiet over the decision was expressed in several quarters. The Guardian reported that some insiders condemned the decision as "an attempt to be trendy", while the Independent described it as "a bloody cull".

Notable films

The London Scene (1961)

The first Survival and a landmark for television natural history. The London Scene was screened on ITV on 1 February 1961 and presented by Aubrey Buxton. The capital was chosen because television viewing was concentrated in urban areas and demonstrating how creatures like foxes, Arctic geese, herons and even a puffin shared the living space with the citizens of London, had obvious appeal. But actually filming the animals in an urban environment was not so straightforward, as associate producer Colin Willock later explained. "The wildlife content of the programme was a bit of laugh, in retrospect. Apart from a few feral pigeons, some ducks in St James's Park, and a fox let out of a laundry basket on a wild night in a quiet street just off Hampstead Heath, the wildlife scenes had been shot anywhere but in London. To be fair, we never suggested that our puffin was standing outside the Thames Embankment entrance to the Savoy Hotel. We merely said that one had been found there and then proceeded to show the bird in its wild state - in Pembrokeshire..."

S.O.S. Rhino (1961)

Survival's first film shot in Africa and the show that did much to establish the series' credentials. S.O.S. Rhino was one of television's first major conservation films, depicting the hazardous capture by lasso of a dozen white rhino threatened by poachers in Uganda and their 200-mile relocation to a national park. The safer method of drugging large animals with darts had yet to be perfected when the operation took place. Uganda National Parks defrayed some of its costs by selling the exclusive film rights to Anglia for £1500. Colin Willock supervised the filming with John Buxton, a cousin of Aubrey, and Chiels Margach, a Ugandan settler of Scottish origin, as cameramen. A tense score from John Dankworth emphasised the dramatic footage, the production having, in Willock's words, "the roar, dust and danger of the chase in every frame", including a sequence where the truck he occupied came under sustained attack from an angry rhino.

The Year of the Wildebeest (1974), Safari by Balloon (1975), Mysterious Castles of Clay (1978), Two in the Bush (1980) and A Season in the Sun (1983)

African films shot through the lens of Kenya-based film-maker Alan Root, working with his then wife, Joan. The Roots' strong narrative style characterised much of Survival’s output. The Year of the Wildebeest was the epic story of the thundering migration of wildebeest herds across the plains and rivers of the Serengeti. Mysterious Castles of Clay, by contrast, showed wildlife in intricate detail in and around termite mounds, revealing the insects' highly organised society and skills of construction. It received a nomination for an Academy Award. The Roots used a hot-air balloon to film sequences for the wildebeest film, and further explored its usefulness to film animals on the mountains and plains of East Africa in Safari by Balloon. Highlight of their journey was the first hot-air balloon flight over Mount Kilimanjaro. Two in the Bush (re-titled Lights, Action, Africa! in the US) included footage of a spitting cobra directing its venom at Joan's face positioned just a few feet from the snake while Alan filmed. A Season in the Sun, an account of wildlife's struggle to survive the heat and drought of the dry season, won an Emmy and a Peabody Award after it was aired by PBS in 1987. Alan and Joan Root were responsible for many of Survival's most successful films for almost 20 years from the mid-1960s. After their partnership ended, Alan Root continued his association with Survival as a cinematographer, producing his own films and guiding the early African work of camera team Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, while latterly also acting as adviser to the series.