Survival (TV series)
Survival was one of television's longest-running and most successful nature documentary series. Originally produced by Anglia Television for ITV in the United Kingdom, it was created by Aubrey Buxton, a founder director of Anglia TV, and first broadcast in 1961. Survival films and film-makers won more than 250 awards worldwide, including four Emmy Awards and a BAFTA.
The original series ran for 40 years during which nearly 1,000 shows were produced. It was one of the UK's most lucrative television exports, with sales to 112 countries; the highest overseas sales of any British documentary programme. It became the first British programme sold to China, the first to be broadcast simultaneously across the continent of North America and its camera teams were the first to shoot a major wildlife series in the former Soviet Union. It gained a Queen's Awards for Export Achievement in 1974.
Early programmes were all half-hours, but the one-hour Survival Special became ITV's flagship wildlife documentary for three decades, often attracting audiences of more than 10 million. Series were also made for Channel 4, for CITV and for regional transmission. Survival achieved great popularity in the US, where a syndicated half-hour series, The World of Survival, ran for 12 years, and numerous one-hour films were aired by broadcasters including NBC, CBS and PBS.
The production unit was disbanded in 2001 and the title disappeared from British TV screens. However, the Survival name returned to ITV with the launch of Survival with Ray Mears in 2010. The Survival name was then subsequently used again with a series entitled Survival - Tales from the Wild.
Structure
For many years Survival was made by a subsidiary of Anglia Television, Survival Anglia Ltd, 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, and the subsequent formation of United Broadcasting & Entertainment, Survival became part of United Wildlife, 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.
Prince Philip introduced or narrated three Survival films in the 1960s through his association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
Despite the star names associated with Survival, almost all narrators were heard but not seen. When Survival began to achieve success overseas, it was decided to facilitate the programmes' export potential by not having a presenter or narrator in vision. This ensured the commentary could be re-recorded in another language, as required. With a few exceptions, this remained the policy throughout.
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, 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."
The second Survival was filmed in the heart of East Anglia and featured one of Britain's rarest birds, the avocet. The series went international when Willock was despatched to Uganda to supervise the filming of a story about white rhino being captured and re-located to protect them from poachers.
Early programmes were all of half-hour duration, and there were usually only five or six each year. However, their success led to the introduction of an occasional one hour Special, although the half-hour format remained the principal output and the basis of Survival’s later success. By 1968 the ITV network had committed to 13 half-hour shows a year.
In 1967, Prince Philip presented The Enchanted Isles, a film about the Galapagos Islands and one of the first of the one-hour Specials that eventually became the major components of the series. He had earlier narrated The New Ark, a film from Africa that won Survival its first international award, a Golden Nymph, at the 1963 Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo. Prince Philip also went on safari with Survival to Lake Turkana in northern Kenya for the filming of Now or Never, stressing the urgency of the need for conservation in Africa.
The advent of colour broadcasting on ITV by 1969 benefited Survival because most of its films had been shot in colour and were readily available to the network.
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 and Tales of the Unexpected to flourish in the US.
SAL also formed partnerships with RKO, Kodak and Home Box Office, and Survival half-hours were also shown on Discovery Channel.