“Can TV save the planet?” by Steve Phillips, Sep 24th 2025: Lecture report

“Can TV save the planet?” by Steve Phillips, Open Planet Studio
Report by David Richards, University of Bristol & Bristol GA Secretary

What a great start to our 2025-26 season of events on 26th Sept. Over 130 arrived at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol in anticipation of an evening talk with stunning film content and valuable experience from the ‘cutting room’. Steve Phillips, editor at Open Planet Studios in Bristol, certainly gave us that. He presented plenty of material from his extensive portfolio of work over the past few decades that revealed a changing narrative as filmmakers increasingly looked to make a difference in the face of continued environmental crises.

Ahead of the main event, David Richards (University of Bristol) briefly introduced the series of talks and logistical arrangements for the next few months (with a nod to the support by the Sheila Jones Legacy) and Harry West (UWE) invited the audience to consider geography and environmental sciences as University and provide guidance on how to choose location and courses.

Janet Neil (Redmaids High) then introduced the speaker to an audience from 11 different schools from Bristol and the surrounding region, with a shout-out to those from St. Mary’s Calne – the furthest travelled. Steve covered many themes – biodiversity, sustainability, climate change, earth systems and more. He also presented the idea of ‘planetary boundaries’. This framework identifies nine inter-linked Earth system processes including climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater change and ocean acidification amongst others. We know that geographers and earth scientists are the forefront in attempts to reveal the state of the planet and work on solutions, and also to well-placed consider the impact of inequality, instability and potential impact.

Steve worked on Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet (Netflix, Silverback Films 2021), which centres the scientific understanding of the challenges we are facing and introduces the audience to “tipping points”. Its message is much different to that in natural history output in the early 2000s, when climate change barely figured. At that time, George Monbiot called out the wildlife TV production companies, highlighting the difference between that portrayed in their films and that ‘threatened by ecological collapse’.

Steve stepped outside his comfort room (i.e. the editing suite) to present a thought-provoking talk that took us on a personal journey from his early days as an “activist via VHS” to the 2025 opening of the highly-rated 360° immersive experience at the Natural History Museum – Our Story with David Attenborough. David Attenborough has obviously been a key player, and this was particularly evident when we were shown the footage of him talking as the People’s Advocate at COP26 in Glasgow 2021, with audio-visual material emphasising the key messages in his important speech. Powerful stuff.

As Steve convincingly illustrated, a few (but perhaps, not enough) film production companies have pivoted of late and have ‘changed the dial’ by providing material that engages those ‘outside the echo chamber’. Flagship features are packaged with film versions for businesses or short clips for social media output. Steve also revealed some fortunate knock-on effects in TV, for example when armchair critics on Gogglebox influenced millions of viewers by reacting to an episode of Saving Our Wilds Isles that was controversially released on BBC iPlayer only.

Effective communication is key in any campaign. Open Planet Studio aim to facilitate this by providing educators and changemakers with free film clips of challenges and solutions. Do explore the library for non-commercial uses at Open Planet • World-class footage of our changing planet
Presenting such an open-source strategy was an excellent and positive way to end the talk. This was an optimistic vision where accurate information and imagery is provided to enhance storytelling and make a difference.

At the end, there was little doubt that this message was well-received by the audience with plenty of applause, followed up with great questions and a bote of thanks from Andrew Tallon (UWE).