The BBC Darwin Season is a series of television and radio programmes commissioned by the BBC in 2009 to celebrate the bicentenary of the great naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species in November, 1859. In partnership with the Open University, the BBC produced a special documentary, Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, narrated by David Attenborough, and three major series.[1] Other presenters involved are Andrew Marr, Melvyn Bragg and Jimmy Doherty.[1] The overall commissioning editor for the season is Martin Davidson, the BBC's commissioning editor for specialist factual (in-house).[2] Contributing units of the BBC are BBC Science, the Natural History Unit, the Religion and Ethics department and the children's channel, CBBC.[1]
Events in the Darwin season are broadcast on the broadcaster's flagship voice programming channel, Radio 4 and its arts and culture channel, Radio 3.
Darwin is also the subject of special editions of the programmes Night Waves and Words and Music.[6]
