The BBC’s dramatised natural history series “Serengeti” returns to screens for a second season.
Academy award-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o returns as the show’s narrator.
The Serengeti in Tanzania, recently awarded as Africa’s leading national park*, is world-renowned for its vast open plains and abundance of wildlife.
This unspoilt corner of Africa has been beautifully captured in “Serengeti 2” and shares the dramatic and emotional interconnected stories of the iconic animals that inhabit the area.
Produced by Simon Fuller and John Downer, the five-part pioneering wildlife drama series follows the journey of characters such as Kali the lioness, Duma the cheetah, Bakari the baboon, Zalika the hyena and Nalla the elephant.
There’s humour, heartbreak and nail-biting tension as new characters move in and familiar faces return.
Some of the highlights in the upcoming season include a flood that is a phenomenon known as an “extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole” - a rare event that led to unprecedented rainfall and flooding in east Africa during 2020.
It is likely to become more common due to climate change.
Despite extreme weather conditions, the production team managed to continue filming and captured the Serengeti cast as they struggled to escape the never-ending floods.
This led to some extraordinary footage, from Bakari the baboon leaping from his flooded tree to Punda the elephant racing to save calf Shani as she was washed downstream.
Over 26 00 hours of footage was captured over a two-year period to bring these untold stories to life and narrate the bigger picture of what daily existence looks like in the Serengeti.
“Serengeti” season 2 airs from Sunday, November 14 at 4.10pm on BBC Earth (DStv channel 184).
You can read and share the latest issue of IOL Entertainment digital magazine here.
Related Video: