Humble Bee Films


Show of the Week: Airborne

Take to the skies with this new natural history series that follows the animal masters of the air, getting close to an array of wildlife that spend their lives above the ground. Hailing from award-winning Humble Bee Films, a UK-based producer of blue-chip natural history, the series follows a diverse array of creatures through their […]

Zinc Media taps Humble Bee creative chief to lead new Bristol-based factual label

UK factual outfit Zinc Media Group has poached Humble Bee Films’ creative director to helm a newly launched Bristol-based label, which will produce history, science, adventure and documentary programming. Atomic Television is being led by Stephen McQuillan and will work with commissioners and co-production partners in the US, UK and internationally, across all platforms. McQuillan, […]

Humble Bee Films hires former Wall To Wall MD as exec chair

UK prodco Humble Bee Films has appointed former Wall To Wall MD Richard Thomson as executive chair. Thomson, who has also previously held senior management roles at Tiger Aspect, Endemol and Optomen Television has joined the Attenborough’s Life In Colour producer after working with the business for two years in a freelance non-executive director capacity. Humble Bee Films […]

TBI Weekly: Why all eyes are on SVOD’s embrace of wildlife TV

Natural history has been evolving at pace over recent years, driven by surging demand from streamers. Stephen Dunleavy, CEO of Humble Bee Films – the producer behind Netflix’s latest entrant in the genre, Wild Babies – tells TBI what’s changed and predicts what the future holds. Traditionally, natural history programming has been closely associated with public broadcasters like the […]

Netflix makes double order for ‘Exploding Kittens’ adult animation & mobile game

Netflix is launching an animated series and mobile game based on the popular Exploding Kittens card game, and has also commissioned Wild Babies, a natural history series narrated by Helena Bonham Carter. Exploding Kittens – The Game will launch on Netflix next month, and retains the same classic gameplay where players draw cards aiming to […]

Preparing for the big adventure boom

Stephen McQuillan, creative director at UK indie Humble Bee Films considers what the immediate future holds for adventure programming, from moving past the pandemic to the growing interest from Hollywood talent. Gold standard unscripted adventure programming has the ability to take viewers somewhere they’ve never been in their lifetime – or could ever expect to […]

‘Attenborough’s Life in Colour’ prodco Humble Bee hires BBCS exec to lead development

UK factual producer Humble Bee Films has appointed Jayne Edwards from BBC Studios Natural History Unit as its head of development. Edwards will develop and pitch science, history and specialist factual programming while also building on the company’s slate of blue-chip factual productions, which includes BBC One (UK), Netflix and Nine Network (Aus) natural history […]

Netflix, BBC team up with David Attenborough on ‘Life In Colour’

Natural history icon David Attenborough has teamed up again with Netflix on a three-part series that is being produced with BBC2 in the UK and Nine Network in Australia. Life In Colour marks the first time the BBC and Netflix have worked together on a natural history show, with Bristol-based Humble Bee Films and Sydney-based […]

UKTV orders more of David Attenborough’s Curiosities

UKTV has commissioned a second, longer, run of natural history show David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities. The first series of the show was the highest ever rated show on UKTV’s Eden channel. It focused on animals that, for various reasons, have an intriguing biology. The new 10x30mins series will feature two animals per episode that share […]