BBC One & David Attenborough Join Forces for Dinosaur Doc

David Attenborough is set to front Dinosaurs: The Final Day, a brand-new landmark documentary from BBC Studios Productions for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Dinosaurs: The Final Day will dive into the full story about how dinosaurs were wiped from the planet. While the asteroid impact 66 million years ago is well documented, no direct evidence has ever been found that confirms how it killed the dinosaurs, and a prehistoric graveyard in North Dakota could give a clearer picture of what led to the creatures’ final days.

Paleontologist Robert DePalma was followed by a BBC Studios Science Unit film crew for three years, exploring the site and unearthing creatures that could shed light on their demise. Attenborough, meanwhile, looks at some of the fossil finds with experts and follows the dig team as they carry out cutting-edge visualization and scanning techniques to reveal fossilized secrets. Further, brand-new VFX production techniques are used to immerse Attenborough in the Late Cretaceous epoch and bring the creatures that lived at Tanis to life.

Dinosaurs: The Final Day is a BBC Studios Science Unit production with NOVA and GBH Boston for BBC One and iPlayer, and PBS, co-produced with France Télévisions.

Attenborough said: “Dinosaurs were among nature’s most extraordinary creatures, dominating the planet for over 150 million years before they became extinct. Tanis could be a place where the remains can give us an unprecedented window into the lives of the very last dinosaurs and a minute-by-minute picture of what happened when the asteroid hit.”

Jack Bootle, head of commissioning, science and natural history at BBC, said: “BBC Studios Science Unit has brilliantly combined cutting-edge CGI with the very latest science to depict, in meticulous detail, what happened on the day of the asteroid strike. I’ve longed to know exactly how the dinosaurs died ever since I was a little boy. Now, finally, I can see it.”