Thoughts on the BBC Earth Experience

The BBC Earth Experience opened in March 2023 in London and just recently closed. Tickets were approx ￡20. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough , the experience is billed as - TRAVEL THE WORLD AND JOURNEY THROUGH THE SEVEN CONTINENTS IN ONE EPIC EXPERIENCE.

For those that don't know, Sir David Attenborough has been making shows about that natural world since the 1960s and is regarded in the U.K. as an absolute icon. His voice was soothing yet authoritative. The footage his team has broadcast over the years has opened the world to the wonders of the natural world.

I knew the show was closing, so I finally had to check this one out. Booked tickets on a damp afternoon in January.

The first thing is that the venue for the experience is entirely off the tourist track in the Earls Court / West Brompton area. The only reason to go here was for this experience. Walking up to a building that looked like it was plopped in the middle of a building site.

Looked smart from the outside. Branding strong.

There was a timed entry, but the host explained it looped. We entered.

Two things hit you on entering. WOW, it's PACKED. It's overwhelmingly busy on a weekday afternoon. What do I do?!?

Confusion.

The space is dark. Surrounded by oversized screens of parrots!

People are just lying on the floor everywhere. I don't know what to do. I stand there, taking it all in, and quickly ushered to move. I have to ignore the large projections of animals and find another spot. There's nowhere to sit. Just a mass of people on the floor. Not sure I want a giant beanbag that someone else has been on.

I found a quiet(er) spot some distance from the crowds of people and school groups and started to take it in. All around were large surfaces with BBC Earth footage blown up on a large scale. Every 10 minutes, perhaps, the footage switched from one continent to another. The narration from Sir David Attenborough is just as superb as ever.

To one side of the large room is a smaller room with screens arranged in a cocoon-like way. Here, you can take in the beautiful footage in a close-up way.

Adjacent was a dark room with a large button in the middle of the room.

Pressing this button triggered oversized footage of all manner of creepies, spiders and worms. Totally creepy and cool. The interaction of the footage only playing with a person was inspired - it was a release for guests who couldn't cope.

Another side, the "Ocean" room, had a few large interactive screens where your body motion was tracked, and you could affect the fish on the screens. All super simple interactions and fun for the smaller ones.

Above the main area was a landing with a spherical screen, and above this was a balcony overlooking the central area. This vantage was ultimately poor. You wanted to be down on the floor and let the footage overwhelm you.

Exiting the main experience led you into a smaller room with a closing narration from Sir David regarding protecting the planet.

Finally, the customary gift shop area. A basic photo moment. And what would have been helpful to know before going in - FREE LOCKERS!

So, let's talk about the overall experience. It was like the greatest hits of BBC Earth. Some parts are really beautiful, but overall, it wasn't fulfilling. The footage blown up was quite grainy and poor in places. I know it can't have been easy sourcing or mapping this footage. As the footage was mapped over the screens, there were "breaks" in the footage, which was a shame.

The pace of changing continents every 10 minutes kept everything brisk. Obviously, we've seen the BBC Earth show on our TV, and the longer format there allowed for more profound narration and storytelling.

The scenic design of the experience was simple but deftly done. The giant "crystalline" forms were good canvases for the content. If you've been to a nature cinema at a Science or Natural History Museum, you've probably seen something better—higher quality 4k or even IMAX footage and a much stronger narrative thread.

Well, this was billed as an "experience". But what sort of experience are we selling here?

It was uncomfortable and hot; I wasn't told there was a locker, so I had to take an oversized coat and bag in. There were not many seats except bean bags on the floor. Way too many people, especially school groups.

I can't fault the kids for having a great time, but this was a quiet experience, almost like a cinema - yet it was treated as a playground. Again, it was no fault of the smaller kids, but this interrupted my enjoyment of the narration - it was sometimes tough to hear.

If the experience had been less full, had more seating and was a bit more relaxed then I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it more.

Let's play hypothetical in the run. I see the experience is now going on tour to Australia. I wonder if the experience broke even in the UK. I can imagine a sizeable upfront cost of the venue and the content creation. The licensing of the BBC Earth brand and the Sir David narration must also have been costly. The overall operation of the experience seemed pretty light—perhaps 2-3 staff inside and one in the gift shop. So, in a 9-month run, you would hope the economics of it paid off.

Judging by the people attending, it hit on three main audience segments - school groups, parents with young kids and pensioners. I do wonder how well it landed with tourists (is the BBC Earth brand strong enough of a pull here?)

Overall, was it worth it? Compared to, say, the David Hockney show in terms of narrative and story - a clear no. Value for money, I think it was OK. I see Frameless charges around ￡30 for entry.

But it just wasn't worth recommending. To get people outside of London to come in for this for the day would have been a stretch.

I'm conflicted here. You want every experience to be great, but you do have to be critical. I take these thoughts and apply them to my own work. What tweaks could I have made to make this a stronger experience?

Building out the environment as a more tactile experience. The floor could have been undulating full of fake grass - a much more welcoming space to reset.

Trying out scent technology could have been really interesting. In specific spaces, touching the grass and then seeing and smelling the natural environment could have been very cool.

Also, creating bespoke 4K content for the experience could have pushed it into extraordinary realms.

I hope this experience was a financial success and the team at Moon Eye Productions returns stronger and better for the next one.