Watch final #PlanetEarthLive from Dr Strangelove's Gallery & come home to #Springwatch

I've just been sitting in the Planet Earth Live gallery in Bristol watching the rehearsals for tonights live show. It's a hive of activity where all the feeds from the crews around the world are shown on a wall of screens dripping with hundreds of cables and wires. You would expect to find Dr Strangelove sitting in front but instead you find the director James Morgan, who is responsible for which feed gets shown on your TV. He's joined by the producers who oversee the editorial and story lines, and a dozen or so other people with critical jobs to do. Each day as the feeds go live you can imagine a scene of calm relief like that of mission control in 1969 as Apollo 11 landed.

Around the world are mini-hubs, like the one my fiancee sits in in Minnesotta - she is responsible for timings. Every second is counted for each individual piece. She speaks directly into the ear-pieces of the presenters so that they can keep slick and to time - imagine trying to present to millions of people whilst someone else is speaking in your ear! When seconds are added on to a piece it has repercussions throughout the whole film, making it a game of maths that would cause my head to explode.

It looks like tonights show is going to be as powerful and revealing as every other episode of this global series. Richard Hammond and Julia Bradbury will present the final updates from the extraordinary cast of animals including Sybil the black bear cub in Minnesota, Moja the young Lion in the Masai Mara, Maya the elephant calf and gremlin the Macaque in Sri Lanka.

While I've loved the show I'll be pleased to get my fiancee Donna back who's been out in Minnesota for the past month. Nice work darling!

The gallery on the Masai Mara sending its video feeds back to the master gallery in Bristol (photo)


 Sybil the black bear cub (Source: BBC Planet Earth Live Facebook)

Moja the lion cub (Source: BBC Planet Earth Live Facebook)

After an action packed adventure around the world its always nice to return home, put your feet up with a nice cup of tea, and catch up with friends. Don't fret because on Monday 28th May, Chris, Martin and Micheala will be handed the olympic torch of live wildlife TV which they'll run with for three weeks, bringing us the best of british in Springwatch and Springwatch Unsprung on BBC2.

The first show will be broadcasting live form a garden in Porters Bar with 12 adorable fox cubs. We'll be introduced to a family of kingfishers, filmed by Charlie Hamilton James. As their story evolves, cameras delicately placed within their nest reveal incredible new behaviours, but even Charlie couldn't have imagined the drama that plays out, as heavy rains cause the river the flood, threatening the entire kingfisher family.

Urban peregrines are an increasingly common sight in the UK’s cities, and for the first time, nests have been rigged with specialist cameras to see how they’ve adapted to urban life. There's been some surprising results – including one of last year’s chicks muscling in to look after this year’s brood. Will his inexperience lead to disaster?

In other firsts for the series, Springwatch reveals the dark dramas that play out in every rabbit warren across the UK, the science of the adorably cute dormouse, the truth behind the mad march hare, moles filmed underground and the fascinating mating behaviour of predatory pike.

We may not have lions and elephants but we certainly have amazing stories right on our Great British doorsteps. 

Webcams

The team have already set up webcams on a number of nests, including a stunning nuthatch family (another first for Springwatch), the indispensable blue tit, some pied flycatchers and a delightful little wren’s nest. Between 5 and 10pm each night the team will host a conversation, interweaving live tweets, comments, Facebook posts and emails.