ATTENBOROUGH RETURNS TO BBC ONE THIS CHRISTMAS WITH TWO SPECIALS

Firstly, a special episode of Planet Earth brings together highlights from the series. From hidden forests, and turbulent coasts, to vast unexplored deserts

We begin in the oldest desert on earth – the Namib, in SW Africa. A pair of ostriches raise their family in the searing heat to keep them safe from predators – but time is ticking as the chicks begin to hatch.

Away from the tropics, in the cold waters off North America, the sun fuels forests of giant kelp. It is a dangerous place for young horn sharks – giant sea bass and large sharks patrol through the kelp, but the real danger is buried beneath.

A little horn shark unwittingly stumbles into an ambush set by an angel shark. With a lightning strike, it is swallowed whole, but it is not over yet – the little horn shark has a secret weapon.

From kelp forests to rainforests, animals must develop remarkable strategies to survive and in the Amazon jungle, alien-like treehoppers form surprising alliances to keep their young safe and fight off deadly assassin bugs. Here it pays to work together.

Leopards are the most adaptable of big cats, and a handful of special individuals have learnt to hunt by hiding and leaping from treetops - some higher than the roof of a two storey house. Their lives depend on them getting this unique game of hide and seek right, and when they do, their prey doesn’t see them coming.

Secondly, 150 million years ago dinosaurs ruled the land, but the oceans were dominated by a mysterious sea monster. Meet the pliosaur, the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas! Now, a giant skull has been found in the cliffs of Dorset…

Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster follows Sir David Attenborough as he investigates the discovery of a lifetime. He’s joining two of the UK’s most intrepid fossil hunters on their perilous expedition to excavate the skull from its resting place 12 metres up in the cliff face. David’s been an avid fossil collector since he was a young boy, but he has never come across a find quite like this.

To help unravel the skull’s mysteries, an international team of scientists and palaeontologists search for clues about how this fearsome beast not only looked but how it behaved, and the strategies it used to hunt its prey.

Cutting-edge visual effects sequences bring the sea monster to life, showcasing its astonishing size – thought to be an incredible 12 metres long - and its phenomenal strength. A momentous new discovery, scientists now believe this could be a completely new species of pliosaur.

Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster will combine ground-breaking science, fascinating natural history with gripping storytelling, and state-of-the-art CGI to explore the tale of the most formidable predator of the Jurassic world…one that hunted in the seas just off the coast of Britain!

Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster is a BBC Studios Natural History Unit (1x60) production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer co-produced by PBS and the WNET Group.