BBC series deliberately uses ‘more organic’ shots to assure viewers animals are not AI-generated, producers say

The David Attenborough-narrated series Blue Planet III deliberately includes cloudier, less polished footage to counter AI fakery and assure viewers it is “authentic”, its producers have said.

Nearly a decade after Blue Planet II shone a light on plastic pollution, and 25 years since the first Blue Planet aired, the hit BBC series is returning with more animal behaviour and cutting-edge technology, including the world’s first underwater CCTV camera – dubbed “stonefish” cam.

BBC’s average audience was 9.7m, four times as much as its rival – similar to its lead four years ago

Their respective World Cup studios have been pored over, their lineup of pundits analysed almost as much as the matches. But when it came to the tournament’s final, the result was clear – audiences once again picked the BBC over ITV.

Four times as many people turned to the BBC to watch Spain secure victory over a belligerent Argentina, very similar to its lead over ITV four years ago.

BBC scored a late goal in head-to-head with ITV over the World Cup by being in the stadium for the final

“I thought it was crap,” Wayne Rooney surmised on BBC One after enduring the half-time show. Amid a tense final, the interval was always going to be prominent, theoretically bringing light to the shade. Why the two UK broadcasters felt the need to transmit the karaoke session in full we will never know but at least the pundits struggled through it, too.

Ally McCoist said it had “mentally scarred” him as someone in attendance, unlike many of his ITV colleagues who were sat in Brooklyn. The studio has rightly earned them kudos, creating a home alongside the East River with the Brooklyn Bridge providing the dramatic backdrop. With the game only an expensive train ride away, it was a surprise to see Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Ian Wright in familiar surroundings.

Second season of BBC hit has attracted one of the most high-profile casts ever assembled for a reality TV show

If it were any other show, the sight of the comedian Alan Carr sobbing under the burden of his dishonesty may have been enough to put off any celebrity thinking about accepting a place in the perilous Traitors’ castle.

Yet the second season of The Celebrity Traitors, being filmed at its now famous Highlands retreat, has managed to attract one of the most high-profile casts ever assembled for a reality TV show.

It seems that even the Traitors host can’t save the ailing chatshow format. As her series ends, it’s hard not to feel that she never quite got out of Graham Norton’s shadow

Six weeks ago, before Claudia Winkleman launched her BBC One Friday night chatshow, media profiles regularly referenced her “Midas touch” with TV formats. She had left one golden programme, sashaying away from Strictly Come Dancing, but her portfolio still included three other winners: the mega hit The Traitors, its celebrity spin-off for the BBC, and Channel 4’s The Piano.

Half a dozen sofa chats later, Winkleman hasn’t exactly suffered the fate of the mythic King Midas, but The Claudia Winkleman Show can fairly be seen as her least glittering work for several years.

Chief content officer Kate Phillips tells staff she is ‘so sorry’ racial slur by Tourette campaigner was not edited from recorded broadcast

Peter Bradshaw: why the dust has not yet settled on the Baftas N-word row

A senior BBC executive has apologised to staff for the corporation’s failure to edit a racial slur from Sunday’s Bafta film awards telecast. In a note sent on Tuesday and seen by the Press Association, chief content officer Kate Phillips told staff she was “so sorry that a racial slur was not edited out of our broadcast” and that she understood “how distressing this was”.

Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson could be heard shouting the N-word as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for special visual effects at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Boy born in Bow would go on to play the devoted father and taxi driver in the BBC One soap between 2000 and 2011

Derek Martin, who starred as Charlie Slater in EastEnders, has died aged 92.

Martin played the devoted father and taxi driver on the BBC One soap between 2000 and 2011, and continued making guest appearances until his departure in 2016.

The presenter on a Strictly apology, her high-wire triumph, and flashing her knickers at David Cameron

Born in Cumbria, Helen Skelton, 42, began her broadcasting career at BBC Radio Cumbria and Newsround. From 2008 to 2013, she was a Blue Peter presenter. Her other credits include reporting on the London 2012 Olympics and presenting Countryfile and BBC Morning Live; she also voices Annie in Fireman Sam. In 2023, she published her autobiography, In My Stride. A new series of her show Lost and Found in the Lakes starts on 5 January on BBC One. She lives in Cumbria and has three children with her former husband, Richie Myler.

What is your greatest fear?
Getting to the end and thinking that I haven’t laughed enough.

Attenborough, 99, enthuses about tube-riding pigeons, foxes, parakeets and others in Wild London for the BBC

Filming the wildlife of London requires an intrepid, agile presenter, willing to lie on damp grass after dark to encounter hedgehogs, scale heights to hold a peregrine falcon chick, and stake out a Tottenham allotment to get within touching distance of wary wild foxes.

Step forward Sir David Attenborough, who spent his 100th summer seeking out the hidden nature of his home city for an unusually personal and intimate BBC documentary.