BBC Studios NHU’s Jonny Keeling

Jonny Keeling had been making wildlife programming for BBC Studios’ storied Natural History Unit (NHU) for more than 25 years when he was tapped to lead the unit in 2022. With a long list of credits that includes Seven Worlds, One Planet; Planet Earth; and The Life of Mammals, Keeling is ensuring the NHU slate—which includes the recently launched Planet Earth III and upcoming Asia—continues to inspire a love of the natural world among audiences worldwide. He talks to TV Real about the values instilled in all NHU productions, using CGI and other techniques to drive new forms of storytelling and the unit’s £1 million talent-development initiative.

TV REAL: Tell us about the mandate you wanted to put into place coming into the role of head of the NHU.
KEELING: Our mission at the NHU is to inspire people across the globe to love and understand the natural world and want to protect it. We do that in three ways, through three important pillars of the NHU. One is factual integrity. That’s the scientific rigor in which we do things. Emotional storytelling and impactful storytelling that has heart. And then the third thing would be that it’s original. Whatever ideas we’re doing, there’s originality and innovation; something new and distinct about it. We’re telling nice stories about the natural world with a healthy and happy team and inspiring the audience. That runs through everything we do.

TV REAL: You’re still making wonderful productions for the BBC, but talk to me about how you’re approaching third-party clients like Apple TV+.
KEELING: We watch the content the streamers put out and, of course, adapt to ensure we’re making content that will resonate with their audience and be fresh and new as well. If you are Apple, Discovery or Nat Geo, you’re buying into our natural history values. We’re tailoring them according to the client.

TV REAL: Your Apple TV+ slate includes Prehistoric Planet, featuring significant CGI use. What’s the approach toward CGI and special effects in NHU productions?
KEELING: It’s all about storytelling. That’s the most important thing. With CGI, we can show people things they’ve never seen before, like in the prehistoric world. It’s a tool for us to inspire awe and wonder, and it’s getting better and better.

TV REAL: What other tech advancements allow you to tell stories in new ways?
KEELING: In The Green Planet, we had a camera tech advancement that meant we could film plants like animals. It gave us a very different time frame. A tree, bush or flower has a very different time frame from a mouse or an elephant. To be able to capture that and speed things up and show a plant moving and behaving like an animal was an important advancement. On projects like Springwatch, we use AI with our cameras, camera traps and the footage coming in. It helps select when there’s been an animal going through the frame and what animal that is.

We also innovate in terms of on-screen talent. Big Cats 24/7, which is coming out next year, has brand-new on-screen contributors and presenters.

And new platforms; we’re making podcasts and short-form content. That’s what I love about the NHU. That unique range we get when we’re making content for many clients is creatively challenging, and we’re making them on very different platforms as well—everything from a five-second clip through to a ten-part series.

TV REAL: You announced a £1 million talent-development grant last year. Tell us about that initiative.
KEELING: In the past, we were going to countries filming something, coming back and then showing it on different channels within Europe and North America. We want to train people in those countries to tell stories. And show that footage back. Project Songbird is for in-country training and in-country screenings. That’s just one of the things we’ve been doing regarding outreach. We have outreach for schools and colleges; students can come in, meet filmmakers and understand different skills and job titles. I grew up without television, so I didn’t even know there were jobs in television. We also partner with Creative Access to improve our representation, off-screen and on. We do things like the Festival of Nature.

When we start a project, I always say to the teams, you’ve got two jobs; you’re delivering your series—something that’s high-quality, high ambition, will make the audience happy, made by a healthy and happy team—but also you are growing someone’s career. You’re helping to support their career development. They have a responsibility to grow their careers, but we have a responsibility to support them.

TV REAL: You also make a lot of kids’ content at the NHU. Tell us about what’s guiding the strategy there.
KEELING: There are similarities—factual integrity, emotional storytelling, original and new. We’re doing a lot with Andy Day; he’s super creative. We’re working with Steve Backshall on Deadly Mission Shark. It takes kids from the U.K. to meet up with kids in the Caribbean. They’re learning to dive with sharks. I don’t know another company that could have managed that: kids traveling overseas, working on boats, working with sharks, all the health and safety. To deliver that series was exciting. We’ve been doing Steve and Aneeshwar Go Wild. Aneeshwar Kunchala was on Britain’s Got Talent. We teamed him up with Steve Backshall. Steve is typically on CBBC but is now stepping onto CBeebies. It’s such a heartwarming show.

TV REAL: You’ve done follow-ups to several of your landmark productions. What’s the decision-making process behind making a Frozen Planet II?
KEELING: It was 16 years between Blue Planet and Blue Planet II. There have been so many species discovered and advancements, both in technology and science, in the oceans and our understanding of the ocean. We have Planet Earth III. I worked on that series for three years. I’m watching as it goes through those final processes. The stories we found are new and original. How the world has changed even in ten years is quite dramatic. Those stories are important to tell. So it isn’t, Hey, we should just do Planet Earth III because we feel like it. Is there good momentum there? Are there stories we need to tell? Is there a new way of telling them?

TV REAL: What other projects are you working on now that you’re particularly excited about?
KEELING: We have Mammals. I worked on the original series of that 20 years ago. There are mammals in there I’ve never heard of. And I did a PhD in wildlife! And there’s behavior I’ve never seen! We also have Asia next year. We’ve focused on Africa a couple of times. We’ve done South America. We’ve never made one about Asia, yet it’s the biggest continent, with more wildlife and more superlatives in terms of the highest mountains, the biggest sand deserts and the deepest oceans. There are so many incredible animal stories. And it’s a continent that is changing fast. We have The Americas for NBCUniversal, with Tom Hanks narrating.

We have some non-landmark series, like Big Little Journeys, which is a wonderful, innovative way of telling stories. We have two characters we follow through on their amazing journeys. They are characters that you don’t usually get to see, like chameleons and pangolins. It’s following their journeys as they’re on a mission to do something, like mate or find food. They’re lovely, well-told stories.

TV REAL: You mentioned traveling less and tapping into local film crews as part of your talent-development initiatives. Is that also helping to reduce your carbon footprint so you can make these shows more sustainable?
KEELING: It completely has. We made Seven Worlds, One Planet a few years back. We had met some up-and-coming camera people from Australia. We took a chance on them and bought them a camera and lens, and they ended up filming two-thirds of that episode. We didn’t fly them and the cameras or our crews and cameras back and forth to Australia. But we have to take a chance on those people. It’s worth it. We’re not using helicopters as much. We’re using drones, which are brilliant. There are lots of ways in which we’ve mitigated our carbon use. We’re incredibly conscious of that.

TV REAL: Is there anything else you want to share about NHU’s priorities?
KEELING: I’ve worked here for 27 years. The creative mix, in terms of the sorts of programs that are made and the different clients we make for, is really exciting. The people are really lovely. And it has a sense of purpose. That’s why I love working here. And the chance to reach hundreds of millions of people around the globe. The Planet Earths and Blue Planets reach about a billion people. That’s incredible. For us to be trusted makers of those shows, we’re honored to be able to do that.