'The Americas' BBC One Sunday 2nd March 18:45

‘The Americas’ is the latest landmark blue chip Natural History series produced by BBC Studios - it premiered on NBC in the USA on Sunday 23rd February and will be broadcast this Sunday 2nd March on BBC One in the UK.  Narrated by Tom Hanks, music by Hans Zimmer and featuring a number of world firsts, this 11-part series (which was filmed over five years and 180 expeditions) is set to be spectacular.

Watch on BBC One this Sunday 2nd March at 18:45 or catch up via BBC iPlayer
Mark filmed an underwater sequence for the series, which will feature in episode one ‘The Atlantic Coast’

In the summer of 2022, Mark filmed sand tiger sharks congregating off the North Carolina coast, in the 'Atlantic Graveyard', named because of all the shipwrecks dotted up and down the coastline. These wrecks, many of which are sunken vessels from World War II, have created an artificial habitat, perfect for these sharks and their prey.  With unnerving toothy smiles, sand tiger sharks are actually one of the most common shark found in aquariums around the world.

Mark spent the shoot diving with his rEvo rebreather, allowing him to sidle up next to and get close with these gentle giants, allowing for some lovely close up shots and behaviour. Adverse weather conditions during the camera team's stay meant the first 12 days of the shoot were spent on land, as the winds were too high, and seas too rough to venture out.  With the resulting reduced schedule, Mark had just four days in which to capture this sequence, so every minute of every dive counted.

“This incomparable project will employ revolutionary filmmaking technology that will showcase the wonders, secrets and fragilities of the Americas – Earth’s largest landmass and the only one to stretch between both poles – and reveal extraordinary, untold wildlife stories that deeply connect with millions around the world. ‘The Americas’ is executive produced by renowned Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning wildlife producer Mike Gunton (“Life,” “Planet Earth II,” and “Dynasties”) for BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the world’s largest production unit dedicated to wildlife filmmaking, in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio, a division of Universal Studio Group. ”

— BBC Media Centre

Production credits:
* Episode producer: Alex Griffiths
* Assistant Producer and shoot director: Chris Kidd
* Underwater DOP: Mark Sharman
* Rebreather buddy and underwater camera assistant: Toby Russell
* Scuba buddy: James Bell
* Topside assistant: Christopher Georgia
* Boat charter: Instigator Fishing & Diving Charters

The thumbnail photograph of a shark swimming through a shoal of fish is by photographer Tanya Griffen Houppermans, and provided an inspiration for the sequence. Tanya was Mark’s dive guide and buddy - showing him around the wrecks and sharks she knows well. 

'Secrets Of The Penguins' coming soon...

Three years in the making, 20 years after the Academy Award-winning March of the Penguins, ‘Secrets of the Penguins’ will tell a brand new, world-first story on the charismatic, plucky and sentient birds at the other end of the Earth. Using newly developed technology, world-class scientific research and unprecedented access, National Geographic will unlock the secrets of the species that make their home in surprising and challenging landscapes around the world.

The new series will be released on Disney+ and the National Geographic channel on Earth Day (22 April) 2025
More details to follow including Mark’s involvement in the series filming in Galapagos during May 2023.

Over three episodes, the series unlocks previously untold stories and revelatory behaviors from global penguin societies, quick to feel love, hate or fear. Antarctica’s strong, powerful but sensitive emperors battle to survive on the dangerous front line of climate change. The street-smart African and little blue penguins live in cities, deserts and beyond, relying on tenacious and “talkative” adolescents to forge new paths into the unknown. Powerful modern themes emerge among the macaronis and chinstraps of wild South Georgia, from strong female leadership to diversity, crime and extreme bravery. Their moving narratives will astonish and inspire, showing penguins to be more like us than we ever realized before.

“In the Secrets series we try to forge an even more intimate and emotional connection with nature – to illuminate how these amazing creatures think, how they feel, how they communicate, how they function as complex societies and cultures”

— James Cameron

'The Secret Lives of Animals' Apple TV+

“The Secret Lives of Animals,” was produced for Apple TV+ by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and is narrated by Hugh Bonneville. It highlights 77 unique species in 24 countries over three years, revealing stunning, never-before-seen animal behaviors and highlighting the remarkable intelligence of the natural world. Each episode delves into pivotal moments in the life cycles of various animals — from birth and leaving home to raising a family, and from finding food to growing old — showcasing their striking intelligence and adaptability.

Watch now on Apple TV+
Mark filmed an underwater sequence of blue-headed wrasse for the final episode of the series ‘Growing Old’

Mark spent 2 1/2 weeks filming on the coral reef a boat ride out from Key Largo, Florida in August 2023 to capture the hidden, or perhaps overlooked behaviour of the blue-headed wrasse. The resulting sequence is in the 10th and final episode of the series, ‘Growing Old’, which covers several ‘end-of-life’ stories of different animal subjects, including this one. The blue-headed wrasse’s life cycle includes changing sex from female to male, which we covered in this sequence.

I filmed on my RED DSMC2 Gemini camera in a Gates Pro Explore housing, as well as using the Vision Research Phantom Flex4K high speed camera, to capture the spawning elements at 300-400 frames per second, also in a Gates housing and I used my Nikon stills lenses for both systems.

Production credits:
* Episode producer: Matt Clements
* Assistant Producer and shoot director: Ellis Roberts
* Underwater DOP: Mark Sharman
* Rebreather buddy and underwater camera assistant: Toby Russell
* Researcher / Dive Supervisor: Summer Kiernan
* Marine Biologist John Godwin, expert in our subject; the bluehead, or blue-headed wrasse (Thalassoma bifasciatum).
* Dive Operations: Horizon Divers

'Earthsounds' Apple TV+

Earthsounds travels to spectacular habitats, including the Queensland rainforest, the Antarctic ice shelf, the Namibian dunes, tropical coral reefs and more. Discoveries and rarely heard recordings from the series include snow leopards singing love songs, the intimate chatter of ostrich chicks from inside their eggs, musical spiders, walrus’s underwater courtship calls and more. But it’s not just animals that make unusual noises; the series also captures the mesmerizing secret sounds of our planet, including the hum of deserts, drinking trees, and the mysterious buzz of the Northern Lights. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston.

Captured over an extraordinary span of 1,000 days across three and a half years, "Earthsounds" unveils our planet in an unprecedented light—a realm teeming with unexpected, unfamiliar, and previously untold sonic narratives that have eluded us until now. This groundbreaking series meticulously documents over 3,000 hours of audio, employing state-of-the-art technology to capture our world in entirely new dimensions.