David Attenborough

Where Has David Attenborough Filmed in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley?

Two BBC series he narrated came here for their wildlife. For a third, he came himself, and ended up on his hands and knees in the grass beside a Wye Valley brook.

Sir David Attenborough has narrated Forest of Dean and Wye Valley wildlife in the BBC's Wild Isles (2023) and Secret Garden (2026), and he filmed here in person for Sky's Secret World of Sound (2024), beside a brook in the Lower Wye Valley near Monmouth.

Attenborough in the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley at a glance

The boar and the robin

The Forest of Dean opens the winter section of Wild Isles, the episode called "Woodland", first shown in March 2023. The BBC sets the scene: "It's deep winter, and with snow blanketing the ground, a robin has a problem". The worms it lives on are locked under frozen ground.

What saves the robin is the animal most people associate with the Forest. "The reintroduction of wild boar has given the robin a lifeline," the BBC says. The boar root through the snow and turn up the worms with their snouts, and the robin helps itself. The BBC calls it "an ancient woodland relationship, only recently restored".

Getting it on camera took patience. Discover Wildlife reported that the Wild Isles team "were on standby for three consecutive winters to film rare footage of this relationship". You don't need anything like as long to see the boar themselves, and our guide to seeing boar in the Forest of Dean tells you where and when to look. Forestry England asks dog owners walking in the Forest to keep their dog under close control and within sight, and ideally always on a lead.

The garden the BBC calls one of the most biodiverse places in Britain

In spring 2026, Attenborough narrated a whole episode of Secret Garden filmed in the Wye Valley. The BBC describes "a beautiful woodland garden hidden at the bottom of a steep-sided Welsh valley", where tawny owls, badgers, dormice and bumblebees all live alongside the family. The BBC says the trees "hide a wealth of wildlife" and calls the valley "one of the most biodiverse places in Britain".

The garden belongs to Robin Smith, a cinematographer who has spent 30 years filming wildlife and who moved out of Bristol to live here. "They used our garden to film in, which is not too far from Monmouth in the Lower Wye Valley," he told Visit Monmouthshire. He shot the episode himself, in his own garden, with a dipper hunting in the brook below the house.

It's a family home, so it isn't a place to visit. The wildlife doesn't stay behind the hedge, though. Dippers work every fast brook running down to the Wye, and tawny owls call across the valley after dark.

The day Attenborough crawled through the grass

Smith was also filming for Sky's Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough, and that's what brought Attenborough here in person. "We were able to get Sir David Attenborough here for a few days," he said.

Series producer Sharmila Choudhury explained what they were after. "We shot a scene of him walking through a woodland in spring to illustrate the beauty of bird song," she told Discover Wildlife. "That was filmed in the Wye Valley where we filmed the white throated dippers at the same time."

Then came the shot she still talks about. "He crawled through the grass on his hands and knees to be there at eye level with the dippers so we could get the shot of him and the little bird in the foreground, which was just extraordinary." He was 97 at the time.

The dipper is worth knowing about before you come. It's a round, dark bird with a bright white bib, and it stands on a rock mid-stream bobbing up and down before walking straight into the water to hunt. Once you've seen one, you'll spot them all along the Wye and its tributaries.

See it for yourself

Symonds Yat Rock is where to start. Forestry England rates it as "one of the UK's best spots for peregrine falcons", and goshawks, buzzards, ravens and kestrels all hunt the gorge below the viewpoint. Bring binoculars and give it time.

For the boar, the forest floor tells you where they've been, and early morning and dusk are your best chances. For the dippers, follow any fast, shallow stream running down towards the river.

Local tip: Forestry England rates autumn at Symonds Yat Rock for variety, when goshawks, sparrowhawks, buzzards, ospreys, owls, ravens and kestrels are all about.

Watch the programmes

Wild Isles is on BBC iPlayer, and the "Robins and wild boars" clip runs the Forest of Dean sequence in two minutes if you want the short version.

The Wye Valley episode of Secret Garden is on iPlayer too. Secret World of Sound is on Sky Nature and NOW.

More screen locations to find

The wildlife isn't the only thing that draws the cameras here. Find Otis's house from Sex Education on the River Wye, see where The Change built its Eel Café at Speech House Lake, or follow our Film & TV Trail for a fantastic tour of the area.