Islands examines how plants and animals find themselves on islands and looks at the forces that shape and change them. Its setting is the world's greatest ocean, the Pacific, which covers almost half of the earth's surface. Scattered across this ocean are the islands of our story, often remote and rarely filmed.

From the lava fields of Hawaii, to the windswept rock stacks of the Antipodes Islands in the sub-Antarctic, we see that only certain plants and animals have the ability to cross the Pacific. Islands are remarkable laboratories of life. Here the "rules" of evolution on continents are broken and new rules apply. Islands can be seen as species factories in which a single life form can be transformed into as many as a dozen new species.

Island life evolved in isolation from the continents, often for millions of years. When humans arrived in the Pacific, they brought with them continental plants and animals, against which island life has few defences.

The series Islands will impress upon an international audience the tremendous wildlife importance of the Pacific region. Life on these islands is unique and remarkable, but the ecosystems are also extremely vulnerable and need protection.

Islands examines how plants and animals find themselves on islands and looks at the forces that shape and change them. Its setting is the world's greatest ocean, the Pacific, which covers almost half of the earth's surface. Scattered across this ocean are the islands of our story, often remote and rarely filmed.

From the lava fields of Hawaii, to the windswept rock stacks of the Antipodes Islands in the sub-Antarctic, we see that only certain plants and animals have the ability to cross the Pacific. Islands are remarkable laboratories of life. Here the "rules" of evolution on continents are broken and new rules apply. Islands can be seen as species factories in which a single life form can be transformed into as many as a dozen new species.

Island life evolved in isolation from the continents, often for millions of years. When humans arrived in the Pacific, they brought with them continental plants and animals, against which island life has few defences.

The series Islands will impress upon an international audience the tremendous wildlife importance of the Pacific region. Life on these islands is unique and remarkable, but the ecosystems are also extremely vulnerable and need protection.