Former BBC Natural History exec forms prodco

Former BBC Natural History Unit boss Wendy Darke has launched True to Nature, a new factual indie.

Like the NHU, True to Nature will be based in Bristol and create natural history programming.

Helena Berglund joins the new company as head of production. Her credits include the BBC Natural World strand and the CBBC Deadly franchise.

Jody Bourton comes on as development producer. Her credits include River Monsters for Animal Planet and Nature’s Weirdest Events for BBC2.

The new company said further appointments will be announced in the coming months.

Darke left the BBC earlier this year, amid a raft of changes at the UK pubcaster. While running the NHU she oversaw the production of hundreds of hours of natural history content.

True to Nature will venture beyond natural history programming, also developing specialist factual, drama and entertainment.

“My passion is to use great story telling to build life-long relationships between people and the natural world,” said Darke, who left the BBC’s new production division, BBC Studios, in April.

“I am also excited about opportunities to expand the portfolio to include earth sciences that relate to the natural world and also topics that capture our curiosity around human nature and relationship with our planet,” she added.

“Being true to nature, for me, is both being a voice for nature at the heart of everything we do and also being true to ourselves and our relationships with each other.”