Life (Season 1)

Life (2009) is a BBC Earth documentary series you can watch online on iFILM — ten episodes shot across four years and 3,000 filming days, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Directors Martha Holmes, Simon Blakeney and Stephen Lyle captured behaviour that had never been filmed before.

A pack of 250 Humboldt squid hunting at night. Komodo dragons working together to bring down prey twice their size. A mudskipper hauling itself onto land. Each episode is built around a single survival strategy — feeding, fighting, finding a mate — and the animals that have taken that strategy to its logical extreme. The camerawork alone required years of preparation and experimental rigs.

For viewers who worked through Planet Earth, this series goes deeper: less geography, more behaviour. Attenborough's narration keeps the science accessible without dulling the strangeness of what's on screen. Stream all episodes of Life (2009) online on iFILM.