Stephen Fry to front a new Dinosaur series for Channel 5

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Dinosaur – with Stephen Fry plans to recreate a hyper-realistic prehistoric environment. 

Channel 5 have announced Dinosaur – with Stephen Fry, an upcoming four-day event focussed on the prehistoric beasts. The show promises to “chronologically tell the definitive story of 165 million years on earth – from the dawn of the dinosaurs to their extinction.

Across four 60-minute instalments, Stephen Fry will steer the show. Getting up close to the dinosaurs, he’ll tell the viewers about each one and discuss different prehistoric eras with experts.

Dinosaur - with Stephen Fry

The show also promises MythBusters-style experiments, where experts will answer questions such as ‘how powerful was a T-rex bite?’

Stephen Fry says:

“Dinosaurs have always been a passion of mine, so I jumped at the opportunity to lend my excitement and curiosity to immerse audiences back in time 250 million years. The attention to detail and technology in this series allows us to really delve deep in to some exciting new scientific discoveries about these majestic creatures.”

“Dinosaur World”

The show was unveiled at the recent Sheffield Doc Fest 2022. Dinosaur – with Stephen Fry will employ a 360-degree virtual space to create hyper-realistic Jurassic jungles and Cretaceous plains; experts from the Natural History Museum have helped create this “Dinosaur World”.

Successive episodes will each see new species introduced; a pack of raptors, a grazing herd of diplodocus and a T-rex are all promised. Each creature is brought to life by behind-the-scenes animators to move, walk, hunt and roar and the audience will see the creatures magically roving around. The show is using Deck 10, the same cutting-edge CGI technology used to create virtual studios for the Tokyo Olympics.

Channel 5’s owners are Paramount Global. Guy Davies, their Factual Commissioning Editor describes the series as “specialist factual content but with an accessible and entertaining twist.” He also promises it will offer “… everything audiences have always wanted to know in one entertaining and information-packed TV event.”

The producers of Dinosaur – with Stephen Fry are Tayte Simpson and Chris Brogden, for Mentorn Media. David Lee directs and it’s co-producers are Krempelwood.

There’s no suggestion of an airdate yet – we’ll keep you posted.