Highlights | February 2012 For further information and images, please contact: UK: Nick Myles Editorial Coordinator BBC Worldwide Channels E-mail: [email protected] Tel.: +44 20 8433 2000 Produced by EBS New Media www.ebs.tv + 44 1462 895 999 Editorial Manager: Paul Talbot [email protected] February 2012 Highlights Future Earth Monday 13 February at 20:00 Future Earth is a striking and authoritative insight into what global warming really means for the future of the world, and the pioneering developments which might well alter its course. This refreshingly honest, optimistic and powerful film explores the vision of our planet’s future as global temperatures © BBC continue to rise – at their current rate increasing by one and two degrees over the next 40 years and three degrees before the end of the century. Based on the work of leading scientists who predict that the impact of a three degree rise in temperature on our planet will be catastrophic. Across the planet life as we know it could be lost forever as climate change accelerates out of our control. But this doesn’t need to be the case, we can take control, and climate change is not yet irreversible. However, if we are to prevent even more widespread damage to ecosystems and human societies, the global temperature rise must be stabilised, and eventually reversed. Future Earth presents ingenious technology and science that is currently being advanced, devised and tested around the world. Science can offer us solutions to a sustainable future – the big question is can we embrace and implement them on a large enough scale? The time to act is now. Reporting from key locations around the world and using imaginative CGI, this film offers the most accurate possible visual analysis of the planet’s future. February 2012 Highlights Earth Under Water Monday 13 February at 21:30 Eminent climatologists think another Great Flood is inevitable if current CO2 emissions continue. But what would happen if sea levels rose to over 70 meters? Based on research by NASA astro-biologist and paleontologist Professor Peter Ward and a group of respected American © Picture Films Ltd climatologists, this eye- opening documentary uses scientific evidence past and present, archive footage, location photography and CGI to explore the terrifying consequences should the atmosphere's CO2 levels treble over the next 100 to 300 years as predicted. Step by step, it paints a chilling picture of the world as the sea levels rise from between one and 70 metres, unravelling the science behind this cataclysm, revealing when it could strike and what its impact would be on humanity. Earth Under Water also questions experts and politicians about what measures can be taken now to stop the current rise of CO2 emissions, and explores how extreme engineering may buy us time. But the message of this film is stark, spelling out in graphic detail the Earth's apocalyptic future that we have been avoiding. February 2012 Highlights How Earth Made Us From Tuesday 14 February at 20:00 Series continues Mon-Fri at 20 :00 This groundbreaking series, from the team behind Earth – The Power of the Planet, reveals the epic tale of how the natural forces of our planet have shaped human civilization. The traditional interpretation of history has focused largely on human factors. Yet the natural environment has also shaped history © BBC since the dawn of time – but how, and to what extent? This series reveals how geology, geography and climate have had a far more powerful influence on mankind than has previously been acknowledged. With passionate storytelling and extraordinary camerawork, this engaging and visually stunning series combines bold ideas with a new science, geodeterminism, to form an original version of human history. Discover why societies have succeeded or failed, and how the environment has influenced every aspect of our history from art to industry, religion to war, world domination or defeat. Visiting some of the most iconic places on Earth, How Earth Made Us overturns preconceptions about our nations and our cultures to offer a new perspective on who we are today. February 2012 Highlights Mapping the World From Monday 27 February at 22:50 Series continues every day at 22:50 As our world shrinks and the ownership of scarce resources becomes ever more contested, mapping has become a fundamental part of our 21st century experience. Behind each map lies a thousand stories – they are our guides to who we are and how we understand the world we live in – as well as getting us from A to B. Maps have been a driving force for individual change and political and scientific revolution. They have defined people and started wars, built fortunes and exposed poverty, named continents and brought families closer together. Mapping the World tells the story of cartography, from hammered rock art through to the planetary images of Google Earth. Each episode addresses a basic technological challenge of mapmaking, and in the process sheds light on the wider world. In tracing the seismic shifts in the history of map-making and understanding what drove the map-makers themselves, this programme ensures that we will never look at a map in the same way again. February 2012 Highlights Doctor Who: The Waters Of Mars Saturday 11 February at 18:00 Lindsay Duncan joins the Doctor as his strong-minded companion in this Doctor Who special. Don’t drink the water. Don’t even touch it. Not one drop… The Waters of Mars is a dark, scary thriller that sees the Doctor land on the planet Mars, at a base in peril. A creeping infection beneath the Martian surface threatens not only the human race, but also the Doctor’s most fundamental beliefs. Together with Adelaide Brooke they must defeat a seemingly unstoppable menace before it can reach Earth, and wipe out mankind. The Doctor must fight not only the water but destiny itself… Whilst also confronting his own existence, the prophesy about his future begins to resonate. Is his song about to come to an end? David Tennant as The Doctor Lindsay Duncan as Adelaide Brooke Peter O’Brien as Ed Gold What the papers say about The Waters Of Mars: “It’s a belter, a watery nightmare – scary, moving, relevant, believable” Guardian “A big-budget, knock-yersocks- off blockbuster” Times February 2012 Highlights Doctor Who: The End Of Time Saturday 18 February at 18:00 In this two part special, John Simm, Bernard Cribbins, Catherine Tate, Timothy Dalton, David Harewood and June Whitfield star alongside David Tennant in his final performance as The Doctor. It’s the Tenth Doctor’s final journey – but his psychotic nemesis the Master has been reborn, and the two Time Lords battle from the wastelands of London to the mysterious Immortality Gate, while the © BBC alien Ood warn of an even greater danger approaching, as a terrible shadow falls across the entire Universe. Soon the Master’s plans hurtle out of control. With the sound of drums growing louder, and an ancient trap closing around the Earth, the Doctor and Wilf must fight alone. But sacrifices must be made, and the deadly prophecy warns: “He will knock four times.” David Tennant as The Doctor Matt Smith as The Doctor John Simm as The Master Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott Catherine Tate as Donna Noble Timothy Dalton as The Narrator David Harewood as Joshua Naismith June Whitfield as Mini Hooper What the press says about The End Of Time: “Raise a glass to the best television drama of the Noughties and the sort of show that high definition was made for.” Sunday Times February 2012 Highlights Doctor Who: Planet Of The Dead Saturday 11 February at 18:00 The Doctor is back. Trapped on a desert planet without the TARDIS, he must team up with a mysterious, aristocratic thief to get back to Earth. Michelle Ryan and comic Lee Evans team up with David Tennant for the first Time Lord adventure shot in High Definition. Ryan plays the mysterious Lady Christina de Souza, who joins the Doctor on a bus- trip which takes a very unexpected detour into danger, while British comedy star Lee Evans also joins the cast playing a character called Malcolm whose life becomes connected to the Doctor’s under extraordinary circumstances… When a London bus travels through a worm-hole to an alien world, the Doctor must join forces with the extraordinary Lady Christina to help the unfortunate passengers, and themselves, get back home. But the mysterious planet holds terrifying secrets hidden in the sand, and time is running out, as the deadly swarm © BBC gets closer… David Tennant as The Doctor Michelle Ryan as Lady Christina de Souza Lee Evans as Professor Malcolm Taylor .