BBC wildlife producer talks to 6th form

BBC wildlife television producer Patrick Morris was back at his former school last week, when he spoke to sixth form scientists at King's about his latest exploits.

He got back into this country just the day before his lecture from the Galapagos Islands, where he spent 14 months filming a major new wildlife series for the BBC to be screened later this year. This comes on the back of the phenomenally successful Planet Earth, currently to be seen on BBC television on Sunday evenings.

Patrick was a scholar at King’s, and later gained a first-class honours degree at Leeds University. He is a series producer working with the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, and has been making award-winning wildlife documentaries for 15 years for BBC, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, WNET, WGBH, ORF and ZDF.

Patrick's work has taken him across the world. Among his many awards he has won the Best of Festival at Jackson Hole for People of the Sea (1997), a 50-minute film about the wildlife and fishery crisis of Newfoundland. He has also won three Best of Festivals at Missoula IWFF for The Natural World Hokkaido : Garden of the Gods (2000), Wild Africa (2002), and The Natural World : Dune (2004), a 50-minute film following sand grains on a ten thousand year journey from South Africa to Namibia and Angola.

Head of Science at King's, Dr Roger Poland, said "It was absolutely fascinating to hear first-hand from someone at the very top of his profession. It opened the eyes of many in the audience to the possibility of a career that combines love of biology and wildlife with the exciting world of high-technology media work. We hope he wasn't too exhausted after his round-the-world journey back from the Galapagos!"