

Trials of Life
1990-10-04 · 49 min / episode · ★ 8.4
Each of the twelve 50-minute episodes features a different aspect of the journey through life, from birth to adulthood and continuation of the species through reproduction.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Creators
- Unavailable
- Production companies
- BBC Studios Natural History Unit
- Countries
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Ended
Top Cast
David AttenboroughSelf - Narrator (voice)Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

A unique fusion of blue chip natural history and earth science that explains how our living planet operates. This five-part series shows how the forces of nature drive, shape and support Earth’s great diversity of wildlife.

Utilizing the latest scientific innovations and leading-edge filmmaking technology, this documentary reveals the secret powers and super-senses of the world’s most extraordinary animals, and invites viewers to see and hear beyond normal human perception to experience the natural world as a specific species does — from seeing flowers in bee-vision to eavesdropping on a conversation between elephant seals to soaring the length of a football field with glow-in-the-dark squirrels.

This major landmark series looks in detail at the fascinating relationship between predators and their prey. Rather than concentrating on ‘the blood and guts’ of predation, the series looks in unprecedented detail at the strategies predators use to catch their food and prey use to escape death. Sir David Attenborough narrates.

Documentary series looking at the most dramatic wildlife spectacles on our planet, showing how life responds to natural events which can dramatically transform entire landscapes.

The remarkable and often perilous story of the journey through life. It is a story that unites each of us with every animal on the planet, because we all set out on this journey from the moment we are born. For animals there is just one goal in life – to continue their bloodline in the form of offspring. This series follows that journey through its six crucial stages: first steps, growing up, finding a home, gaining power, winning a mate and succeeding as a parent.

A rare look at warring animal clans battling for survival in a remote region of Africa, which is drying up after years of flood-soaked abundance.

Motoring programme featuring reviews of and reports about cars of all types.

Revisit the epic heroes, villains and moments from across the MCU in preparation for the stories still to come. Each dynamic segment feeds directly into the upcoming series — setting the stage for future events. This series weaves together the many threads that constitute the unparalleled Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A showcase of the wonders, secrets and fragilities of the Americas, narrated by Tom Hanks.

Actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in a travel show that explores healthy, sustainable ways to live.

This documentary series about plants is the first immersive portrayal of an unseen, inter-connected world, full of remarkable new behaviour, emotional stories and surprising heroes in the plant world. Planet Earth from the perspective of plants.

MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel in the United States and the United Kingdom, Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, France 5 in France, and 7mate in Australia. Each episode is an educational look of varying depth into the construction, operation, and staffing of various structures or construction projects, but not ordinary construction products. Generally containing interviews with designers and project managers, it presents the problems of construction and the methodology or techniques used to overcome obstacles. In some cases this involved the development of new materials or products that are now in general use within the construction industry. MegaStructures focuses on constructions that are extreme; in the sense that they are the biggest, tallest, longest, or deepest in the world. Alternatively, a project may appear if it had an element of novelty or are a world first. This type of project is known as a Megaproject.

Come one, come all to The Circus. This real-time documentary series pulls back the curtain on the current political stories, revealing the intense, inspiring and infuriating stories behind the headlines. Key characters and events are presented in real time, as they are happening.

Tom Hardy narrates this thrilling natural history series following five apex predators facing the ultimate test of survival in drastically changing environments across the globe.

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Investigates a wide range of historically compelling topics and the mysteries surrounding each including the Titanic, D.B. Cooper, Roswell, John Wilkes Booth, and more. Fresh, new evidence and perspectives will be showcased, such as never-before-released documents, personal diaries and DNA evidence.

Morgan Freeman presents his quest in order to find how most religions perceive life after death, what different civilizations thought about the act of creation and other big questions that mankind has continuously asked.

American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and others who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States.

Chris is on a mission to live better for longer. With the help of top scientists, he takes on six epic challenges to test mind and body to the max.

This docuseries captures the remarkable rise and unprecedented success of one of the most dominant and iconic franchises in professional sports. Featuring exclusive access to the Buss Family and probing, revealing interviews with players, coaches, and front office execs, this series chronicles this extraordinary story from the inside – told only by the people who lived it.
Similar titles

Baboons with Bill Bailey is a wildlife documentary series presented by Bill Bailey. The series follows Bill as he attempts to find out more about the lives of baboons who are living in several colonies in Cape Town, South Africa.

David Attenborough embarks on a remarkable 500 million-year journey revealing the extraordinary group of animals that dominate our world, and how their evolution defines our human bodies.

Few countries in South America can boast to have such contrast and variety as Argentina. Diverse habitats such as Patagonia's bleak steppe, soaring Andean snowcaps, vast salt pans, lush rainforest around Iguazu Falls, steamy marshlands of Ibera, and grasslands of the Pampas support an astonishing range of wildlife - from penguins, whales and seals to condors, armadillos and guanacos.


The people, places and stories making news in the British countryside.

Explore six of the last untouched locations on earth. The documentary series presents life as nature intended, following the unique way wildlife has adapted to these environments and continues to rise to new challenges over the course of a year.

Filmed over the course of a year, this three-part documentary follows those who live in one of the most extraordinary places on the planet, Australia's Great Barrier Reef.


This documentary series about plants is the first immersive portrayal of an unseen, inter-connected world, full of remarkable new behaviour, emotional stories and surprising heroes in the plant world. Planet Earth from the perspective of plants.

A series of very short films inspired by the amazing and often bizarre sexual practices of insects and other creatures.

Meerkat Manor is a British television programme produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International that premiered in September 2005 and ran for four series until its cancellation in August 2008. Blending more traditional animal documentary style footage with dramatic narration, the series told the story of the Whiskers, one of more than a dozen families of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert being studied as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long-term field study into the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of the cooperative nature of meerkats. The original programme was narrated by Bill Nighy, with the narration redubbed by Mike Goldman for the Australian airings and Sean Astin for the American broadcasts. The fourth series, subtitled The Next Generation, saw Stockard Channing replacing Astin as the narrator in the American dubbing.


The daily struggles of animal lovers who have taken it upon themselves to run animal shelters for orphaned wild animals, mostly with their own resources, and often under their own roof.

The groundbreaking efforts of the team working to save the Scottish wildcat from extinction.

The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world, yet one of the most undiscovered. 20,000 plant species, 430 mammals, 1,200 birds, 800 reptiles and amphibians, and an estimated 850 freshwater fish species, are found in this very remote Asian region. A not-to-be-missed wildlife series that will truly be a feast for the eyes.

See the real modern-day Amazonia through an exploration of the Amazon Basin, meeting a different group of people who live there in each episode.


Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - “The National Parks: America's Best Idea” is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.
