Walking with...
Cover of the Australian 2008 DVD box set of the franchise
Created by	Tim Haines &Jasper James[a]
Original work	Walking with Dinosaurs
Owner	BBC
Print publications
Book(s)	See below
Films and television
Film(s)	Walking with Dinosaurs (film) (2013)
Television series	Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) Walking with Beasts (2001) Walking with Cavemen (2003) Sea Monsters (2003) Walking with Monsters (2005) Walking with Dinosaurs (2025)
Television special(s)	The Ballad of Big Al (2000) The Giant Claw (2002) Land of Giants (2003)
Theatrical presentations
Play(s)	Walking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular (2007-2019)
Games
Video game(s)	See below

Walking with...^[b] is apalaeontologymedia franchise produced and broadcast by theBBC Studios Science Unit.^[11] The franchise began with the seriesWalking with Dinosaurs (1999), created byTim Haines. By far the most watched science programme in British television during the 20th century,^[12]Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) spawned companion material and five sequel series:Walking with Beasts (2001),Walking with Cavemen (2003),Sea Monsters (2003),Walking with Monsters (2005), andWalking with Dinosaurs (2025). Series in the franchise typically use a combination ofcomputer-generated imagery andanimatronics, incorporated withlive action footage shot at various locations, to portray prehistoric animals in the style of a traditionalnature documentary.

TheWalking with... programmes were praised for their special effects and for their science communication. Though largely praised by scientists for the effort to adhere to science and for portraying prehistoric life as animals rather than movie monsters, some academic criticism has been leveled at the series for not making clear through their narration what is speculative and what is based in fact.^[13]

In addition to the five main series, the success ofWalking with... also led to the production of theWalking with Dinosaurs special episodesThe Ballad of Big Al,The Giant Claw andLand of Giants. The franchise has also been accompanied by several books, merchandise, video games and the live theatrical showWalking with Dinosaurs − The Arena Spectacular. In 2013,a movie based onWalking with Dinosaurs, with the same name, was directed byNeil Nightingale andBarry Cook.^[14] In 2025, a newWalking with Dinosaurs series was produced by BBC and PBS, with Kirsty Wilson as the showrunner.^[15]

Walking with Dinosaurs was devised by the thenBBC-employed science television producerTim Haines in 1996. Inspired by the 1993 filmJurassic Park, Haines envisioned a more science-based documentary programme using the same techniques asJurassic Park to bring dinosaurs to life. Though such a series was initially feared to be far too expensive to produce, particularly considering the production costs ofJurassic Park, Haines managed to bring down the costs through working with the award-winning UK-based graphics companyFramestore. It was only after the production of a six-minute pilot episode in 1997 that Haines managed to secure funding for the series;Walking with Dinosaurs was funded by the BBC,BBC Worldwide and theDiscovery Channel, alongside major investments fromTV Asahi in Japan andProSieben in Germany.^[3] At a cost of £6.1 million ($9.9 million),Walking with Dinosaurs cost over £37,654 ($61,112) per minute to produce, making it the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made.^[16] The visual effects ofWalking with Dinosaurs were done by Framestore and the puppets and animatronics were done by the special effects companyCrawley Creatures.^[13]

The success ofWalking with Dinosaurs led to the rapid creation ofWalking with... as a brand of documentary series.^[17] In the aftermath ofWalking with Dinosaurs, Haines founded the production companyImpossible Pictures together withJasper James,^[18] one of the producers onWalking with Dinosaurs.^[3]

2000 saw the release of a special episode ofDinosaurs,The Ballad of Big Al, focusing on a singleAllosaurus specimen.^[19] The first entire sequel series released in 2001:Walking with Beasts, which explored the life of the Cenozoic, after the age of the dinosaurs. LikeWalking with Dinosaurs before it,Beasts was the idea of Haines. Haines wished to introduce the general public to the assortment of animals of the Cenozoic, typically less represented in popular culture than the dinosaurs.^[2] Haines served as executive producer on the series, with James and Nigel Paterson producing and directing.^[20]Beasts was in terms of effects more challenging to produce thanDinosaurs, owing to mammals having features such as fur, whiskers, eyebrows and various floppy parts absent in dinosaurs, and to audiences being more familiar with how mammals move and act and thus better at spotting mistakes.^[21]

In late 2002 and early 2003, further special episodes ofDinosaurs were broadcast:Land of Giants andThe Giant Claw. These specials starred wildlife presenterNigel Marven as a "time-traveling zoologist". Marven's inclusion was mainly so that audiences would have a better understanding of the scale of the animals shown.^[22] While Haines, James and Impossible Pictures worked onLand of Giants andThe Giant Claw, the BBC produced a further series without their involvement:Walking with Cavemen, also broadcast in 2003.^[23]Cavemen acted as a sequel toBeasts, exploringhuman evolution. The series was created by Richard Dale and Peter Georgi, both of whom had previously worked together on documentaries such asThe Human Body, and starredRobert Winston as a presenter.^[24] The success ofLand of Giants andThe Giant Claw led to the creation ofSea Monsters, broadcast in 2003, a miniseries exploring the "seven deadliest seas of all time", once again starring Marven.^[25]

The seriesSpace Odyssey (2004), produced by Haines and James at Impossible Pictures together with BBC Worldwide, the Discovery Channel and ProSieben, was originally going to be titledWalking with Spacemen. Both executives of the BBC and ProSieben heraldedWalking with Spacemen as the logical next step in the series, following on from the journey began withWalking with Dinosaurs,Beasts andCavemen.^[7][26]Space Odyssey used special effects and techniques from theWalking with... documentaries^[26] to speculate how astronauts may explore the various planets in theSolar System oncrewed missions.^[7][27] Despite the title change,Space Odyssey has at times been referred to asWalking with Spacemen also after its release^[17] and the old title was used in some of the companion material, including as the title of the earliest editions of the companion book, co-authored by Haines andChristopher Riley.^[28]

Instead of a futuristic series, Haines and Impossible Pictures decided to round off theWalking with... series by making a programme on the before then largely underutilizedPaleozoic era, set before the dinosaurs.Walking with Monsters, broadcast in 2005, utilized the most sophisticated effects of the entire franchise, owing to advancements in technology by the time of its production.^[29]

Framestore and Crawley Creatures returned to do the computer graphics and animatronics, respectively, for every successor series produced by Impossible Pictures.^{[21][30][31][32][29][33]}Walking with Cavemen which involved Framestore but not Crawley Creatures.^[24] Practical effects ofWalking with Cavemen were done by several companies, including Altered States FX, Animated Extras and BGFX.^[34] After the release ofMonsters, Impossible Pictures, Framestore and the others involved were effectively forced to move on from documentary filmmaking and produce other series likePrimeval (2007–2011) due to companies and executives losing interest in funding fact-based documentaries on prehistoric life.^[35]

Envisioned as the first "Natural History of Dinosaurs" and a series that would provide viewers with "a window into a lost world",^[12]Walking with Dinosaurs explores life in theMesozoic era, particularlydinosaurs, in the format of a traditionalnature documentary.

The first special episode ofWalking with Dinosaurs to be released wasThe Ballad of Big Al (2000).Big Al follows a singleAllosaurus specimen nicknamed"Big Al" whose life story has been reconstructed based on a well-preserved fossil of the same name.

Walking with Beasts followsWalking with Dinosaurs in showcasing prehistoric life in a nature documentary style.Beasts tracks animal life, particularly the rise of themammals to dominance, in theCenozoic era. The series also gives some insight into human evolution, with an episode devoted toAustralopithecus and appearances by bothNeanderthals andanatomically modern humans.

The two later specials,The Giant Claw (2002) andLand of Giants (2003), star "time-travelling zoologist" Nigel Marven as he travels back in time to encounter and interact with prehistoric life.

Walking with Cavemen followsWalking with Dinosaurs andWalking with Beasts in adopting the same nature documentary style, though this time involving presenterRobert Winston.Cavemen follows the story of human evolution through exploring key developments on the path fromAustralopithecus afarensis to modern humans. The programme often focuses on particular characters and their relationships to each other in order to be more accessible to viewers.

Sea Monsters once again stars Nigel Marven as a "time-traveling zoologist" who this time travels to seven different periods of time in prehistory, diving in the "seven deadliest seas of all time" and encountering and interacting with the prehistoric creatures who inhabit them.

Serving as a prequel series toWalking with Dinosaurs,Walking with Monsters explores the prehistoric life of thePaleozoic era. The series focuses on "the struggle for the survival of the fittest", using stories of individual animals to cast the Palaeozoic as a long "war" between various animal groups for dominance, some of which are described within the context of the series as being distantly related to humans.

A revival of the franchise, the 2025 series recounts the stories of six individual dinosaurs. Each episode is divided between prehistoric segments of CGI animals set in live action landscapes, and modern day segments involving paleontologist activities at the dig sites where each dinosaur was discovered.

Walking with Dinosaurs was broadcast to record audiences in 1999^[36] and is sometimes considered the biggest science documentary series ever created.^[37] With 15 million viewers viewing the first episode on 4 October 1999 and another 3.91 million viewing it on its repeat the Sunday afterwards,Walking with Dinosaurs is by far the most watched science programme in British television history.^[12] Viewership figures steadily declined for later series; the first airing of the first episode ofWalking with Beasts in 2001 had around 8 million viewers and the first airing of the first episode ofWalking with Monsters in 2005 attracted 4.57 million viewers.^[38]

The ratings shown below are 7-day data, including both the original airings of the episodes and their repeats some days later. There is only data for the top 30 programmes in terms of viewers; episodes labeled N/A failed to reach the top 30 programmes during their airings.

Walking with... : UK viewers per episode (millions)

Series		Episode number						Average
		1	2	3	4	5	6
	Walking with Dinosaurs	18.91	17.75	17.96	16.8	15.95	15.68	17.18
	The Ballad of Big Al	N/A	–					N/A
	Walking with Beasts	13.99	11.34	9.27	N/A	5.87	9.48	9.99
	The Giant Claw &Land of Giants	6.83	5.76	–				6.30
	Walking with Cavemen	7.63	6.21	N/A	N/A	–		6.92
	Sea Monsters	7.59	6.94	6.52	–			7.02
	Walking with Monsters	4.57	N/A	N/A	–			4.57
	Walking with Dinosaurs (2025)	2.99	2.47	2.54	N/A	2.33	N/A	2.58

Audience measurement performed byBroadcasters' Audience Research Board^[39][40]

Prehistoric Planet is a revision ofWalking with Dinosaurs andWalking with Beasts, done byDiscovery Channel andNBC for theDiscovery Kids network in 2002–2003. Though the producers kept most of the original animation, David Bock and Peter Sherman wrote new text for a younger target audience, narrated byBen Stiller (in Season 1) andChristian Slater (in Season 2),^[41] and interspersed the scenes with occasional quizzes to act as bumpers around the commercial breaks. Newmusic was incorporated as well. Most marketing and advertising for the series focused on the dinosaur episodes. In addition, the final episode,Prehistoric Planet Top 10, focused solely on the creatures fromWalking with Dinosaurs.^{[citation needed]}

The first fourWalking with... series were accompanied with companion books. These books werecoffee table books exploring the settings from each series in detail, with scientific information, facts and narratives similar to those shown on screen. All of the books were lavishly illustrated with stills from the episodes. All of theWalking with... companion books were well received.^[42][43][44]

• Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History (1999), by Tim Haines^[42]
• Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari (2001), by Tim Haines^[43]
• Walking with Cavemen: Stand Eye-to-Eye with your Ancestors (2003), by John Lynch and Louise Barrett^[44]
• Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Predators of the Deep (2003), by Nigel Marven and Jasper James^[45]
• Walking with Dinosaurs (2025), by Andrew Cohen, Helen Thomas, and Kirsty Wilson^[46]

Walking with Monsters was not accompanied by a companion book, instead the series was in 2006 accompanied by the bookThe Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, an encyclopedia and reference work with images from the entire franchise, co-authored by Haines and Paul Chambers.^[47] In addition to the companion books andThe Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, several other books have been released to accompany the different series.Walking with Dinosaurs was in addition to its companion book also accompanied byWalking with Dinosaurs: The Evidence (2000) by David Martill andDarren Naish andWalking with Dinosaurs: The Facts (2000) byMichael Benton, both books serving to corroborate the science behind the series.^[37] Among the various children's books that have been released alongside theWalking with... documentaries is a children's book adaptation ofThe Ballad of Big Al byStephen Cole, titledAllosaurus! The Life and Death of Big Al,^[48] as well as 3D albums,sticker albums and photo journals for bothWalking with Dinosaurs andWalking with Beasts.

With the exception ofWalking with Monsters, all of theWalking with... series launched with accompanying websites.^{[12][24][49][50]} The original 1999Walking with Dinosaurs website was considered innovative for the time and included scientific information, fact files, glossaries, as well as games and puzzles.^[12] The content of the websites of following series was similar, offering both accompanying scientific information and games.^[24][49][50]

In addition to the games on the website, fullWalking with... games have also been developed. The first such game was thefreeware video gameDinosaur World, developed by Asylum Entertainment and published by theBBC Imagineering in June 2001.Dinosaur World is an adaptation ofThe Ballad of Big Al where players try to find various animals and plants. The game was never finished but could be downloaded from the BBC website in itsalpha form.^{[citation needed]} There was also a video game adaptation ofWalking with Beasts,Walking with Beasts: Operation Salvage, developed by Absolute Studios and published byBBC Worldwide Ltd. in 2001.Operation Salvage is atop-down shooter where players travel back in time to observe animals and fight time-traveling enemies.^[51] AnotherWalking with Dinosaurs game was released in 2013, titled simplyWalking with Dinosaurs, to accompanythe film adaptation of the series released that year.Walking with Dinosaurs is anaugmented reality game developed bySupermassive Games in collaboration with the BBC.^[52]

• Walking with...
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• Documentary films about prehistoric life
• Documentary films about science
• Documentary television shows about evolution
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