Original air dates: 11 January – 15 February 1995
Introduction
This series marks a turning point in the Life Collection: for the first time computer technology is being used as a standard practice.
Unavoidably a lot of the sound in the series is based on sound effects, the plants live in a silent world but Attenborough’s people decided without sound effects the series would be rather dull. In any other series such decisions would be questionable but here they are probably vital for the scenes not to be completely silent apart from him talking.
The audience may have wondered about the word “Private” in the title. It is made quite clear in the first scene what Attenborough means, and even more so in his reflections: Plants living on a very different time-scale from ours live a life that we don’t sense. Speeding up things is necessary to comprehend what is happening.
Despite the series being predominantly about plants it does also necessarily involve other organisms in important (even leading) roles. Insects and mammals play a big role and fungi are in the main leading role apart from the plants themselves. To make the point quite plain at start: Fungi are neither plants nor animals, they have a molecular structure quite unique to themselves and belong to their own kingdom. However, playing a vital role in plant ecology they show up numerous times in the series.
The series consists of six programmes of which the first three are about plants in general but the rest are about them in a wider context.