Show of the Week: A Bee’s Diary

Blue chip natural history programming featuring exotic animals has become a hugely competitive genre over recent years as streamers join incumbent broadcasters on lavish productions, but there is also an increasing push for content that explores the fascinating lives of wildlife closer to home.

A Bee’s Diary is one such show, tapping into the surging interest in the insect’s life and using a raft of modern techniques to produce a 1 x 60-minute special that pushes the boundaries of traditional natural history filmmaking.

It was originally commissioned by Blue Ant Media’s Love Nature and wrapped production in late 2020, having been produced by Cologne-based Taglicht Media in association with Canadian pubcaster CBC and WDR in Germany.

The show, which has been shot in 4K, follows the trials and tribulations of two particular honeybees over two years from birth to death, capturing the often overlooked drama of their lives in extraordinary detail.

It uses proprietary macro- imaging technology, CGI and first-person narration to tell the insect’s story, following their lives at eye level and offering a raft of science-based insights that reveal the intricacies of a working bee colony.

Carlyn Staudt, global general manager at Love Nature, says that the show has managed to “unpack the lived experience and life’s work of these tiny superheroes, a species that has fascinated humans for centuries.”

Blue Ant International, which has already sold the show to Smithsonian Channel in the US and Sky Nature in the UK, oversees licensing outside of the commissioning broadcaster and partner territories.

Distributor: Blue Ant International
Producer: Taglicht Media
Broadcaster: Love Nature (Canada)
Logline: An extraordinary look at life in the beehive from the point of view of just two bees.