Home	Speakers	Testimonials	About

Benedict Allen Chris Bradley Ann Daniels Paul Deegan David Edwards Tom Forrest Alastair Fothergill Commodore Ian Gibb Richard Grundy Caroline Hamilton David Hamilton John Harrison Leo Hickman Dr Martha Holmes Alastair Humphreys Freddie Knoller Rob Lilwall Lucinda Lambton John Julius Norwich Martin Pailthorpe John Pilkington Geoff Somers Rebecca Stephens Julie Summers Lars Tharp Sir Crispin Tickell Stephen Venables Phil Wickens Dick Willis

Dr Martha Holmes - BBC Film Producer and Presenter Martha Holmes is wildlife filmmaker for the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU). For over 20 years she has travelled the length and breadth of the planet in pursuit of stories for her films. She joined the NHU as a presenter for ‘Reefwatch’, the first live broadcast from underwater. Following the success of this series she went on to research and present the immensely popular ‘Sea Trek’, a series about the best dive sites in the world. She later produced many programmes for the Wildlife on One strand, including subjects as varied as hippos, snakes, otters and coral reefs. Her ‘Wildlife Special: Polar Bear’ won the NHU a much-coveted BAFTA. Martha has worked as a producer on some of the BBC’s best-known natural history series. One was a comprehensive look at Antarctic wildlife - ‘Life in the Freezer’ presented by Sir David Attenborough. Another was the landmark series ‘The Blue Planet.’ As one of the three producers on this, Martha made the episodes on ‘Coral Seas’ and ‘Frozen Seas’, the latter taking her, once again, to the polar regions. She also presented the environmental show that accompanied the series. Blue Planet was quickly followed by ‘Nile’, a series which examined the geology, history and wildlife of the iconic river. In 2004 Martha turned her hand to drama, and produced the three-part series ‘Manhunters’ which tells the extraordinary stories of animals which became serial killers. For the past four years she has been leading the team producing the NHU’s most ambitious animal behaviour series ever – ‘Life’. This compelling 10-part series, narrated by David Attenborough, is to be transmitted on BBC1 in the autumn of 2009. Talks Martha’s finished films are sometimes magnificent, sometimes moving, sometimes intimate but are always highly polished. Her talks reveal the incredible challenges she and her colleagues face to bring them to our television screens: finding elusive animals; talking round indigenous guides; developing new equipment and dealing with the extreme logistics of sending film crews to the remotest corners of the world. What shines through is her tenacity and her passion for wildlife and filmmaking. And of course the talks are all beautifully illustrated. From the beginning of 2010 Martha will be offering talks on how the latest NHU landmark series was produced. The Making of ‘Life’ (New talk for 2010) Four years in the making - 'Life' is about extreme behaviour and the extraordinary ends that animals and plants go to in order to survive. It documents ‘survival of the fittest’ in their battle against daily life. 'Life' is full of surprises, drama and spectacle and includes TV firsts and new behaviours. In this fascinating talk (and illustrated with film clips), Martha reveals some of the extraordinary challenges she was faced with whilst making the film and shares some remarkable ‘behind the scenes’ stories … Working with Wildlife In a fascinating talk, and illustrated with superb footage, Martha describes what it is like to be a natural history producer. She reveals the highs and lows of wildlife film making and the lengths producers will go to ensure that the BBC's Natural History Unit continues to roll out ground-breaking, award-winning programmes. Illustrated with short clips, she describes moments in her career which have given her the most personal fulfillment, scenes which have been the most challenging technically and reveals some astonishing stories that lie behind the filming of the many programmes she has been involved with and which we, as audiences have greatly enjoyed. What others have said 'Martha's talk was superb! The students are abuzz about it this morning. She is such a lovely person and her manner of presentation and what she said were excellent. We so appreciated having a bit of an insight to what goes on in the making of such brilliant programmes. The stills and clips were world class. Very many thanks for your role in enabling this fabulous lecture to take place. ' David Bryson, Monkton Combe School, Bath 'Martha was excellent and was really well-received by both the boys and the girls.' Hugh Tatham, Monmouth School Click here to see more testimonials for Martha ...