← Evolution

Series 1

5 episodes · 2026

  1. 1The Elephant

    13 Jul 2026 · 58 min

    How did the elephant get so big? Chris Packham explores the four-billion-year story of how a tiny cell evolved into complex, gentle giants.

  2. 2The Ostrich

    20 Jul 2026 · 58 min

    How did the ostrich come to lay the biggest egg on Earth? Chris Packham explores the way reproduction has shaped life on Earth and the surprising evolutionary origins of sex, eggs and birds. It's a four billion year journey contained within a shell.

  3. 3The Bat

    27 Jul 2026 · 58 min

    How did the bat get so hungry? Chris Packham explores how the drive to find food has shaped animal life. The origin of bums, guts, jaws and super-hearing.

  4. 4The Dolphin

    03 Aug 2026 · 58 min

    How did the dolphin get so smart? Chris Packham explores the origins of senses, brains and intelligence, in an evolutionary odyssey that ventures from ocean to land and back again.

  5. 5The Horsefinale

    10 Aug 2026 · 59 min

    How did the horse become so fast? Chris Packham sets out on a slithering, swimming, sprinting odyssey that explores the evolutionary beginnings of animal movement and how it reached its peak in one of the most elegant and athletic animals on Earth: the horse.