Narrated by renowned naturalist and three-time Emmy® Award-winner Sir David Attenborough, Kingdom is an epic six-part natural history series that follows four rival animal families over five years, chronicling their stories of survival and dominance. Filmed in the heart of Zambia, with over 1,400 days in the field and a team of more than 170 people, including over 90 local Zambian crew members and wildlife experts, it is considered one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken by BBC Studios Natural History Unit. Kingdom premieres Sunday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on BBC Earth during the channel’s nationwide Free Preview, running from February 27 to April 30. The series will be available to stream on BBC Earth via Prime Video Channels starting March 9, with new episodes released weekly.
Leopards, hyenas, wild dogs and lions all lay claim to Nsefu, a lush corner of Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park, situated along the banks of the mighty Luangwa river. Teeming with life, Nsefu is an ideal place to raise a family, but with so many predators competing for territory, it can quickly become crowded. Kingdom follows a lion pride, a wild dog pack, a hyena clan and a leopard family, as they battle to make Nsefu their home. It’s a story about endurance, control, ever-shifting power dynamics, and perhaps the greatest challenge of all: raising a family in a fiercely competitive world.
In Kingdom, audiences are introduced to a leopard named Olimba, who is attempting to raise her young cubs in the heart of Nsefu, when her world is thrown into chaos by the dramatic arrival of Storm, the wild dog queen, and her pack. However, Storm’s pack soon faces new challenges when a returning lion pride attacks the local hyena clan, led by matriarch Tenta. Even the lions must remain vigilant, particularly when protecting their own cubs. As well as the intense power struggles between these top predators, the series shows how a colourful supporting cast, from powerful elephant herds to flocks of hamerkops to troops of marauding baboons, impact the central characters in surprising ways.
Representing the longest period the BBC Studios Natural History Unit has ever spent embedded in a single location for one series, Kingdom goes beyond documenting the stories of some of Africa’s most charismatic wildlife and also shines a light on the vital work of leading conservationists striving to protect them from poaching.
Kingdom, a 6×50′ series for BBC One and iPlayer, is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC AMERICA. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Specialist Factual, BBC Commissioning. The Executive Producer is Mike Gunton, the Series Editor is Simon Blakeney, and the Series Producer is Felicity Lanchester. BBC Studios is handling global sales.
Fun Lion Facts:
- Lions are known as “hypercarnivores” – almost all of their diet is made up of meat.
- After feeding, a lion can survive for over a week without needing to eat again.
- The darker a lion’s mane, the more attractive he is to females.
- They are the most social of the big cat species, living in prides with typically 5-20 individuals, and hunting cooperatively.
- Lions are able to survive for a number of days without drinking water. They can obtain fluids from the animals that they eat.
- Lions rest for up to 21 hours a day, with males sleeping for longer periods than females.
Fun Facts from Filming:
- The Kingdom team filmed the series across 5 years, spending around 1400 days over 76 shoots in Nsefu.
- Filming Kingdom required a team of over 170 people, including over 90 local Zambian crew members and wildlife experts.
- Kingdom is a first in natural history programming in that it documents the hierarchy of some of Africa’s deadliest predators by following the changing dynamics between known individuals across five years.
- All lions have unique whisker spots, which the crew used to identify over 20 lions across the series.
- Over the course of five years during filming, the crew had various close encounters with the local wildlife. Some of these included a bathroom being destroyed by an elephant, a black-necked spitting cobra having to be removed from a tent and the crew discovering a crocodile sunbathing on one of their tent porches. One producer was even chased by a baboon brandishing a toilet brush! (No crew or animals were harmed!)