Hugh Bonneville Lends His Voice for Two New Smithsonian Channel(TM) Projects

ViacomCBS’ Smithsonian Channel taps the highly acclaimed British actor Hugh Bonneville for two all-new wildlife programs featured in the network’s signature Wild Wednesdays lineup. The award-winning British actor is slated to narrate Wild Tales from the Farm premiering Wednesday, November 3 @ 8PM ET/PT and will host The Crown’s Ancient Forest documentary premiering Wednesday, December 1 @ 8PM ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.

“An ancient landscape and a contemporary haven for Britain’s wildlife, The New Forest is one of the nation’s jewels,” said host Hugh Bonneville. “It is a unique and precious environment, brilliantly captured in this enthralling and thought-provoking film.”

The Crown’s Ancient Forest is a captivating one-hour documentary shot in the heart of Southern England where a royal forest lies. Hosted by Hugh Bonneville, cameras capture a wild and magical place of ancient beauty that’s hardly changed since King William the Conqueror proclaimed it as his hunting grounds some 900 years ago. In this one-hour film, witness a remarkable year in the life of the forest, told through the eyes of its most iconic inhabitants: New Forest Pony spring foal, a pair of rare goshawks nesting in the ancient woods, and a fallow red deer stag.

Stretching south from the famous Salisbury Plains to the shores of The Solent, which flows into the English Channel, the New Forest National Park is the largest and richest lowland wilderness in Britain, home to more ancient woods, mossy mires, and rich heathlands than any other landscape in Europe. From feast to famine, The Crown’s Ancient Forest is an extraordinary tale of how people and animals have shaped the destiny of a royal forest.

Wild Tales from the Farm chronicles a year in a quiet corner of Southern England, where dramatic stories of family conflict, romantic betrayal, and fierce rivalries play out among the species living in and around a picturesque organic farm. Narrated by Hugh Bonneville, this four-part series exposes the secret life of farm animals and their wildlife neighbors, told across the seasons. From springtime births and summer flings to autumn bounties and winter battles, it’s a wild year of life on the farm, told through the eyes of the creatures who call it home. Cameras capture rare stories of birth and death, love and hate, and other animal dramas taking place on this 1,200-acre farm in Britain.

Wild Tales from the Farm is commissioned by Love Nature, in partnership with Smithsonian Channel and ARTE France. Co-executive produced by Patrick Morris and Lucy Van Beek alongside James Manfull of Love Nature. Tria Thalman is executive producer on behalf of Smithsonian Channel.