This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2024) |
Wildlife SOS | |
---|---|
Created by | Simon Cowell MBE Stephen Fry |
Developed by | Jason Giberti Jim Incledon |
Directed by | Jim Incledon |
Presented by | Simon Cowell MBE |
Narrated by | Simon Cowell MBE |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Production | |
Executive producers | Simon Cowell MBE Ben Kelly Mark Wild |
Production locations | Wildlife Aid, Leatherhead, Surrey |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production companies | Face Productions Amatis Film & Television Productions Wild Productions |
Original release | |
Network | Animal Planet Channel 5 ITV London ITV Meridian |
Release | 1996 – 2014 |
Wildlife SOS was a British TV show which was presented by conservationist Simon Cowell MBE [1] The show was created for Channel 5, and appeared on Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. [1] It is based in the UK's Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead, Surrey.
In 2014, the first made-for-web episodes of Wildlife SOS started to appear online, made by the Wildlife Aid Foundation. Throughout Wildlife SOS, in addition to 'special' episodes filmed at wildlife centres on the world, the main focus of the series has been on the work of staff and volunteers at the WAF wildlife centre in Surrey.
In 1996, following a fire that destroyed one third of the hospital complex, Cowell found his organisation reliant on media attention for its continued survival. Cowell was approached by representatives of the newly formed Animal Planet channel to produce a television series chronicling the drama of life in the wildlife rescue facility. The show experienced long-term success; it has been cited as "the longest-running animal rescue TV series" and continues to broadcast on Animal Planet, and various other channels owned by Discovery Communications. The TV series originally had 30-minute episodes but in 2012, this changed to a 60-minute format. The newest (2014) series of Wildlife SOS comprises shorter episodes available on-line on The WildlifeAidTV channel on YouTube.
Wild Productions were the official makers of Wildlife SOS until 2013 when production was taken over directly by the Wildlife Aid Foundation itself. The writer, narrator and presenter of Wildlife SOS is Simon Cowell MBE who was also the chief executive of the Wildlife Aid Foundation.
City of London Freemen's School (CLFS) is a co-educational private school for day and boarding pupils, located at Ashtead Park in Surrey, England. It is the sister school of the City of London School and the City of London School for Girls, which are both independent single-sex schools located within the City of London itself. All three schools receive funding from the City's Cash. The school's head is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.
The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, and has a long association with David Attenborough's authored documentaries, starting with 1979's Life on Earth.
Wild Kingdom, also known as Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, is an American documentary television program that features wildlife and nature. It was originally produced from 1963 until 1988, and was revived in 2002. The show's second incarnation aired until 2011 on Animal Planet in the United States. A third incarnation streamed webisodes on a dedicated YouTube channel from 2013 to 2018. Starting April 4, 2021, the program will be shown in its traditional Sunday timeslot on the cable channel RFD-TV. A fourth incarnation, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild, hosted by Peter Gros & Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, premiered on NBC as part of the network's Saturday morning The More You Know educational and informational programming block in October 2023.
Jeffrey Corwin is an American biologist and wildlife conservationist, known for hosting Disney Channel's Going Wild with Jeff Corwin, The Jeff Corwin Experience on Animal Planet, ABC's Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin/Ocean Treks with Jeff Corwin and Wildlife Nation with Jeff Corwin.
Matthew James Baker is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's Countryfile since 2009 and The One Show from 2011 to 2020, with Alex Jones.
Michaela Evelyn Ann Strachan is an English television presenter. She is best known for her work with wildlife series such as The Really Wild Show and Springwatch. She lives in South Africa.
Christopher Gary Packham CBE is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author, best known for his television work including the CBBC children's nature series The Really Wild Show from 1986 to 1995. He has also presented the BBC nature series Springwatch, including Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, since 2009.
A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's natural habitat, but often including footage of trained and captive animals, too. Sometimes they are about wildlife or ecosystems in relationship to human beings. Such programmes are most frequently made for television, particularly for public broadcasting channels, but some are also made for the cinema. The proliferation of this genre occurred almost simultaneously alongside the production of similar television series which is distributed across the world.
Planet Earth is a 2006 British television series produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Five years in the making, it was the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC and also the first to be filmed in high definition. The series received multiple awards, including four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and an award from the Royal Television Society.
Nigel Alan Marven is a British wildlife TV presenter, naturalist, conservationist, author, and television producer. He is best known as presenter of the BBC miniseries Chased by Dinosaurs, its sequel, Sea Monsters, as well as the ITV miniseries Prehistoric Park. He is also known for his unorthodox, spontaneous, and daring style of presenting wildlife documentaries as well as for including factual knowledge in the proceedings.
Stephen James Backshall is a British naturalist, explorer, presenter and writer, best known for BBC TV's Deadly 60.
Dave Salmoni is a Canadian animal trainer, entertainer and television producer. He has his own production company, Triosphere, which is based in South Africa and specializes in wildlife films. Dave has dedicated his life to animal conservation.
Mark Evans is a British veterinary surgeon turned television presenter.
Pet Rescue is a British daytime TV series broadcast on Channel 4. Launched in January 1997, it chronicled various pets and animals being rescued, cared for, and then either rehoused or returned to the wild.
Simon Maxwell Cowell was a British conservationist, television presenter, and author best known for hosting the Animal Planet documentary series Wildlife SOS from 1996 to 2014. He was the founder of Wildlife Aid Foundation, originally titled Wildlife Aid, which is a charitable organization dedicated to the "rescue, rehabilitation, and release of British wildlife".
The Wildlife Aid Foundation is a charity dedicated to the rescue, care and rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned animals. Based in Leatherhead, Surrey, UK, the centre operates Surrey County's only wildlife hospital and maintains a referral service for wildlife hospitals throughout Europe. The organisation also carries out environmental activist and educational roles. Wildlife Aid has attracted media attention for its rescues of photogenic wild animals like young foxes and baby badgers; Animal Planet's TV program Wildlife SOS chronicles the activities of Wildlife Aid volunteers as they rescue imperiled animals.
Animal Planet is a Dutch pay television channel broadcasting nature-related documentaries in the Netherlands and Flanders. The channel launched as a Pan-European feed on 1 July 1997. It is operated by Discovery Benelux.
Chris Morgan is a British-born ecologist, conservationist, TV host, filmmaker, podcaster, and author. His ecology and conservation work focuses on bears and other large carnivores worldwide. Over the last 25 years Morgan has worked as a wildlife researcher, wilderness guide, and environmental educator on every continent where bears exist.
Casey Anderson is an American filmmaker, wildlife naturalist, and television presenter known for translating human relationships with the natural world and wild animals to various audiences. He has been a host and executive producer of the Nat Geo WILD channel television series, Expedition Wild and America the Wild with Casey Anderson, and for raising Brutus the Bear, a grizzly bear that he rescued and adopted as a newborn cub. Brutus and Anderson have appeared in many films, documentaries, television commercials, and live educational shows across the United States.
Michael Kaczorowski, a nine-time nominated and three-time Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer, is currently the creative director and producer of Bangkok Swagger. As executive producer, he is responsible for some of Animal Planet and Discovery's biggest and most iconic hits including Carrier: Fortress at Sea, Raising the Mammoth, and Walking with Prehistoric Beasts.