Eyewitness (British TV series) facts for kids

Eyewitness is a cool natural history TV show made by the BBC and DK Vision. It's based on the popular Eyewitness Books series, which are awesome books for kids. The show helps you learn about science and nature in a fun way! Guy Michelmore wrote the main music for the show, and Guy Dagul added more music later on.

Discovering the World with Eyewitness

How Eyewitness Shows Are Made

Eyewitness is a documentary series. Each episode is about half an hour long. It focuses on one topic from natural science. This could be anything from the Solar System to how the human body works.

The show presents information inside the "Eyewitness Museum". This museum is created using CGI. It looks like a real science museum, but with a white and empty style. This style matches the Eyewitness Books.

The Eyewitness Museum and Heroes

Inside the museum, you see different exhibits. Real-life video clips are shown through large windows or openings in the walls. Both the books and the TV show have a very clear visual style. They use a lot of the color white.

Almost every episode also features a "Hero." This is a special character or object. The Hero helps guide the story of the show. It is often referred to throughout the episode. For example, in the "Weather" episode, the hero is a weathervane rooster. In "Dinosaur," it's Legs, a claymation Tyrannosaurus. Other heroes include a paper boat from "Pond and River" and a robotic human mime artist from "Human Machine."

Who Narrated Eyewitness?

In the United Kingdom, the show was first narrated by the late Andrew Sachs. For audiences in America, Martin Sheen narrated the first two seasons. However, in the final season, Andrew Sachs narrated both the UK and US versions. He used different accents for each country.

The show had different producers for each season. Bill Butt produced the first season. Briget Sneyd produced the second, and Martin Mortimore produced the third.

Eyewitness on Video and Software

When the show was released on video, episodes from the first two seasons included short behind-the-scenes clips. These clips played after the main program. In 2003, eight episodes were released on "interactive DVDs." The UK narration was kept for these American DVD releases.

There were also four Eyewitness Virtual Reality computer programs. These were based on the show. They included "Cat," "Bird," "Dinosaur Hunter," and "Earth Quest." An episode about "Shark" was planned but never made into a software.

Eyewitness Episodes Guide

Eyewitness had three main series, plus a few special episodes. Each episode explored a different topic in science and nature.

Series 1 (1994)

The first series of Eyewitness aired in 1994. It covered a wide range of animal and science topics.

Series 2 (1996)

The second series continued to explore different natural science topics. It aired in 1996.

Series 3 (1997)

The third and final series of Eyewitness was broadcast in 1997. It covered more fascinating topics about our world.

Special Episodes

Besides the regular series, there were also three special "making of" episodes:

• The Making of Eyewitness (1998)
• The Making of Eyewitness Living Earth (2000)
• The Making of Eyewitness Worlds (2003)