BBC drops first look at Walking With Dinosaurs as the legendary TV show returns after 25 years off screens

Daily Mail​

19-05-2025

It was 25 years ago that the terrifying T-Rex, the spiny Stegosaurus and the dizzyingly-tall Diplodocus were brought to life on our TV screens.
Walking With Dinosaurs used cutting-edge technology to bring the prehistoric world right into living rooms across the UK.
Now, the BBC is reimagining the brand once again through a new six-part series.
The first episode showcases Clover, a three-year-old orphaned Triceratops who lived 66 million years ago.
Alone and vulnerable without a herd for protection, she's stalked by the fearsome T-Rex.
The episode flips between her fight for survival and palaeontologists painstakingly uncovering her fossils.
She was found in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, not far from the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
An adult Triceratops would have reached eight tonnes and nearly nine metres in length, and was the largest and most iconic of the horned dinosaurs.
With two one-metre-long horns over its eyes, and a giant frill behind its head, it would have been an imposing sight.
But youngsters like Clover would have been nothing more than a snack for larger predators.
The episode – due to be broadcast on Sunday - showcases her day-to-day life as she looks for her herd and tries to survive.
Helen Thomas, Executive Producer, said: 'The story of Clover is so fascinating because, like the whole series, it is based on the real finds from a unique dig site.
'In the case of Clover, finding the bones of a very young Triceratops is rare in itself as so many ended up as lunch for the many predators roaming north America in the late Cretaceous.
'But Clover's story was something even more special - close to her dig site the team found remains of the most infamous predator of them all – T-Rex.
'Unearthing the bones of predator and prey so close together enabled us to reveal the latest science of these iconic species and tell their extraordinary stories.'
While the original Walking With Dinosaurs series – first broadcast in 1999 – focused purely on the prehistoric world, this time producers decided to include footage from real dinosaur digs.
'This allowed us to tell the most amazing dinosaur stories, but also viewers will literally be able to see the scientific evidence these narratives were based on emerging from the dust for themselves,' showrunner Kirsty Wilson said.
One stand-out moment from the first episode involves the palaeontology team analysing an enormous piece of dinosaur excrement.
Team leader Eric Lund and fossil restorer Aubrey Knowles, from The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in eastern Montana, measure the prehistoric excrement – protected in plaster – and look at its composition.
'The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell,' narrator Bertie Carvel says.
'It may look like a non-descript bit of rock but the shape and texture tell the experts this is a coprolite – fossilised faeces.
The pair work together to examine the prehistoric poo, declaring it measures 26.5 inches.
'Most coprolites can't be attributed to any specific species and bone fragments within the dino dung reveal this was the waste product of a meat eater.
'Then, there's the matter of size.'
Lund gets his tape measure out again and determines it is 6.2 inches across.
'The only large carnivorous dinosaur that could have possibly dropped this would be a T-Rex,' he says.
'So very, very cool.'
The duo continue to analyse the fossilised poo to reveal small bones – from the predator's victims - still in the remains.
The team behind the remake say advances in science and technology have been at the heart of the series.
Other episodes will feature a Spinosaurus, a predator even bigger than a T-Rex, the 'spikiest dinosaur known' called Gastonia, and a Jurassic giant, the Lusotitan.
The episode will air on Sunday 25th May at 6:25pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
HOW THE DINOSAURS BECAME EXTINCT AROUND 66MILLION YEARS AGO
Dinosaurs ruled the Earth around 66million years ago, but suddenly disappeared in what is known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction.
It was believed for many years that the changing climate destroyed the food chain of the huge reptiles.
However, in the 1980s paleontologists discovered a layer of iridium - an element that is rare on Earth but found in vast quantities in space.
When this was dated, it coincided precisely with when the dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record.
A decade later, scientists uncovered the massive Chicxulub Crater at the tip of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, which dates to the period in question.
Scientific consensus now says that these two factors are linked and they were both probably caused by an enormous asteroid crashing to Earth.
With the projected size and impact velocity, the collision would have caused an enormous shock wave and is likely to have triggered seismic activity.
The fallout would have created plumes of ash thought to have covered the whole planet, making it impossible for dinosaurs to survive.
Other animals and plant species had a shorter time-span between generations which allowed them to survive.
There are several other theories as to what caused the demise of the dinos.
One early theory was that small mammals ate dinosaur eggs and another proposes that toxic angiosperms (flowering plants) killed them off.