Eyewitness

Eyewitness is an educational TV show produced by Dorling Kindersley Vision and BBC Wildvision. It had three seasons, each with thirteen half-hour episodes, that were broadcast between 1994 and 1997. It was aired on the BBC and PBS. The entire series has been released on VHS, and several DVD releases have been made.

The UK release was voiced entirely by Andrew Sachs across all three seasons. In the US release, Martin Sheen narrated all the first and second season episodes. In the third season US release, Andrew Sachs also provided the narration although here he put on an American accent. The opening and closing themes were created by Guy Michelmore, as well as the music for all of season one. The episode scores for seasons two and three were written by Guy Dagul, with season three also including stock music tracks and cues by Dick DeBenedictis.

The series is based on a series of book titles of the same name. The first and second seasons are based off titles that existed prior to their creation. The third season changes this, with a number of episodes not having a corresponding book title at all and others preceding the publication of their book titles by several years. The programmes often loosely follow the books, but add new information or sequences to reflect the stock footage included. The programmes did spawn a set of four virtual reality PC games, with a fifth being designed but never developed.

## Style

The episodes all have a very similar format. Almost every episode is based entirely within a computer-generated virtual science museum (some episodes do have sequences filmed outside), seemingly without normal physics. The programme travels between pictures in the wall where stock footage is played and also explores the corridors and atriums of the museum itself, where studio-filmed animals and objects roam around. The background in the museum is almost always white, which matches the original style of the Eyewitness books.

Most episodes often have a main character, which is revisited throughout the episode and helps to drive the narrative. Many of these characters remain unchanged throughout the episode, such as Legs the plasticine dinosaur in Dinosaur and Smedley the CGI skeleton in Skeleton. Other times the character changes form, such as the origami figure from Pond and River that changes between a boat, a fish and a bird. Other characters are replaced as the episode progresses – in Monster the character changes from a spider to a scorpion to a bearded dragon and finally a hyena.

Eyewitness has two different types of animal footage combined into each episode. There are animals filmed in a studio in front of a greenscreen (this footage was often re-used for both Amazing Animals and Creatures Fantastic), as well as stock footage from other wildlife documentaries. Because of its links to the BBC, through BBC Wildvision and BBC Lionheart, most of the stock footage used in Eyewitness comes from BBC documentaries.

## Programmes

A total of thirty-nine episodes of Eyewitness were created, airing in three seasons that each contained thirteen episodes. Some episodes have some overlap, but may be more specific or have a broader scope than their predecessors (for example, elephants were the main focus in Elephant in Season One, but did appear briefly in Mammal in Season Two).

Season One (1994)

Season Two (1996)

Season Three (1997)

## Tie-Ins

A series of CD-Rom games were developed by Dorling Kindersley's arm DK Interactive Learning, based off the same books.

* Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Cat (1995)
* Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Bird (1995)
* Eyewitness Dinosaur Hunter (1996)
* Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Earth Quest (1997)

A fifth game, Eyewitness Virtual Reality: Shark, was in development but never released. If the number of buttons on the lift console in-game was indicative of the number of planned games, up to twelve games could have been planned.

## Availability

Almost the entire series is available online on unofficial channels. As well as the original VHS releases, there have been three partial releases of the series onto DVD:

A total of 8 episodes were released on interactive DVD, which contains links within each episode to relevant clips from other episodes

In the USA, there has been a complete DVD release for the first season, eleven episodes of the second season and seven episodes of the third season

A total of 12 episodes were released as a free gift by the UK’s Daily Mirror newspaper, which was linked to a deal for buying Eyewitness books

## Awards and accolades

The series won several awards during its airing, including a 1994 Parent’s Choice Award (for Jungle), a 1996 National Education Association Award, Golden Gate Awards in 1996, 1997 and 1998 and a Chicago International Children's Film Festival award for Excellence in Children's Media.

**Writing staff**: Anne MacLeod • Ben Southwell • Ben Steiner • Brian Meehl • David Hanson • David Stafford • David Helton • George Bloom • Lynette Singer • Mike Tomlinson • Paul Thomas • Stan Cullimore
**Directors**: Gavin Maxwell • Justine Kershaw • David Hutt • Andrew Jackson • Justin Hardy • Ludo Graham • Jerry Foulkes • Derek Hall • Sanjida O'Connell • Caius Julyan • Bonni Cohen • Leanne Pooley • Edwina Vardey • Alexandra Beazley • Sam Hodgkin • Karen Walsh • Jack Weber • Richard Simkin • Alex Hearle • Brian Cummins • Ben Southwell
**Composers**: Guy Michelmore (season one) • Guy Dagul (seasons two and three)

**Season One**: Cat • Fish • Horse • Dog • Jungle • Bird • Amphibian • Insect • Shark • Elephant • Reptile • Dinosaur • Skeleton
**Season Two**: Desert • Tree • Ape • Mammal • Butterfly and Moth • Volcano • Rock and Mineral • Seashore • Pond and River • Weather • Arctic and Antarctic • Prehistoric Life • Shell
**Season Three**: Flight • Bear • Sight • Island • Survival • Mountain • Monster • Human Machine - Plant • Ocean • Planets • Life • Natural Disasters