Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months, you’ll know that Sir David Attenborough’s latest landmark series on BBC One has recently come to a conclusion. A number of viewers have expressed heartbreak at the series but this recurring theme is the whole point. With the recent success of Our Planet on Netflix, it seems the BBC is happy to be more explicit in it’s programming to depict our impact on the natural world. It’s not the picturesque Eden that these land mark series tend to depict it as, although there has been an overall shift since Blue Planet II.

An example of this is in the very first episode, on Antarctica. Some of you may remember wiping the tears from your eyes after watching walruses plunge to their death in Our Planet – a story element borrowed by Seven Worlds, One Planet. The series continued until the final episode to show emotive imagery to highlight the damaging impact that humankind is inflicting on the planet. Whether this is using satellite images to show the rate and scale of deforestation or the murderous extent of Africa’s ivory trade. I hope as much as the producers and Attenborough that all of this sparks action.

Aside from this element of the series, the camera work is as stunning and always – even helping to tell the story of some lesser known species such as the European hamster. It’s rare to see such mundane species in a landmark BBC documentary but again I think this is part of the story, helping members of the public to fall in love with the nature that is on their doorstep in the hope that this biophilia spreads to the other realms of life. As always there are huge panoramic shots, the following of predators through the landscape and the use of state of the art technology. All of this comes together to create the best Attenborough documentary series this decade.

I hope that if you haven’t seen the series, that you eventually get the time to watch it. As a conservationist it is great to see some of our more damaging activities being highlighted. However I’m aware that this may also cause more bad news fatigue in those watching the series. Fingers crossed that it leads to action, much like Blue Planet II did. As you’ve probably guessed by the title of the series, the aim is to show that all seven continents are unified through life and our activities. I feel as though this title is very fitting and that the team behind the series was able to achieve this.