---
name: "Alastair Fothergill"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/alastair-fothergill"
fi1m_id: "alastair-fothergill"
imdb_id: "nm0288144"
tmdb_id: 67589
wikidata_id: "Q721429"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "10 April 1960"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 83
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-24T01:50:13.809692+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Alastair Fothergill

## Identity

Alastair Fothergill

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/alastair-fothergill
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** alastair-fothergill
- **IMDb ID:** nm0288144
- **TMDB ID:** 67589
- **Wikidata ID:** Q721429
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Fothergill, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q721429, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0288144/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67589

Director and producer. Born 10 April 1960 in London, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 10 April 1960, London, England, UK
- **Active:** 2006–present
- **Also known as:** 알래스테어 포더길, 艾雷斯泰·法瑟吉尔
- **Frequently works with:** [David Attenborough](https://film.one/person/david-attenborough.md), [Vanessa Berlowitz](https://film.one/person/vanessa-berlowitz.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 83, as director, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 86 (1), 2020s 80 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Fothergill, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q721429, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0288144/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/67589

## Streaming the US now

- **Discovery+:** [*Planet Earth II*](https://film.one/tv/planet-earth-ii.md) (86)
- **Netflix:** [*David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet*](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Alastair Fothergill

> Alastair Fothergill's natural history work increasingly asks us to face environmental loss. *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* makes that loss moving and understandable, though we want harder questions about how recovery is meant to happen.

Attenborough speaks quietly in *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), setting environmental damage against what he remembers of the natural world. Alastair Fothergill directs with Jonathan Hughes and Keith Scholey, and the three make the scale of the losses understandable through that personal account. We were upset by the losses Attenborough describes within the span of his own lifetime. The restrained delivery gives those recollections time to register. This is persuasive filmmaking, worth seeing despite the practical questions it passes over when it turns to putting things right.

Fothergill's earlier work was largely in ambitious natural history television, with a substantial contribution as a producer. He was series producer on *The Blue Planet* (2001) and *Planet Earth* (2006), and helped write and direct the latter's companion film, *Earth* (2007). Organising sustained filming across the world is a considerable part of his craft. The later work brings conservation more explicitly into the account of animal behaviour and ecosystems. *Our Planet* (2019), on which he was executive producer, makes that concern central.

Attenborough, a long-term creative partner, is crucial to the effectiveness of that change. His recollections give the directors a way to hold our attention without treating environmental damage as an inventory of disasters. They keep *A Life on Our Planet* to 83 minutes, trusting plain speech and wildlife images to make the case. The film asks for no specialist knowledge, and its accessibility is a considerable virtue.

The trouble is that the possible remedies receive less scrutiny than the damage. Fothergill, Hughes and Scholey move too quickly from a concern we can share to a responsibility that seems to fall equally on everyone. We wanted them to spend longer on who can make changes at scale, and what gets in the way; their confidence becomes harder to share when those questions are hurried past. That is a serious limitation in a film asking us to believe that action can work. Start with *A Life on Our Planet*, but leave time afterwards to question its reassurance.

## Biography

Alastair Fothergill is a British producer and director of nature documentaries. Born in London in 1960, he studied zoology at Durham University and joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983. He worked on programmes including *The Really Wild Show* and David Attenborough’s *The Trials of Life*, and served as head of the Unit from 1992 to 1998.

Fothergill was series producer of *The Blue Planet* (2001) and *Planet Earth* (2006). He co-directed the associated feature films *Deep Blue* and *Earth* (2007). In 2012 he co-founded Silverback Films. His later credits include directing *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020) and producing series for Netflix such as *Our Planet* (2019). He was appointed OBE in 2019 for services to film.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, silverbackfilms.tv.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), Fi1m 80, Director, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md)
- *Planet Earth II* (2016), Fi1m 86, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/planet-earth-ii.md)

## Complete filmography (40)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough* (2026), Producer
- *Secrets of the Bees* (2026), series, Producer
- *The Dinosaurs* (2026), series, Executive Producer
- *Hamza's Hidden Wild Isles* (2025), series, Executive Producer
- *Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story* (2024), Executive Producer
- *Life on Our Planet* (2023), series, Executive Producer, Producer
- *Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey* (2023), Producer
- *Wild Isles* (2023), series, Executive Producer
- *Polar Bear* (2022), Director, Producer
- *Bear Witness* (2022), Director
- *Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet* (2021), Executive Producer
- *A Perfect Planet* (2021), series, Executive Producer
- *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), Director, Executive Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md)
- *Sir David Attenborough and Sir Michael Palin in Conversation* (2020), Executive Producer
- *Penguins: Life on the Edge* (2020), Director
- *Elephant* (2020), Co-Director
- *Dancing with the Birds* (2019), Executive Producer
- *Penguins* (2019), Producer, Director
- *Our Planet* (2019), series, Executive Producer, Other
- *Our Planet: Behind the Scenes* (2019), Producer
- *Dolphin Reef* (2018), Co-Director, Producer
- *Blue Planet II* (2017), series, Director
- *Planet Earth II* (2016), series, Director — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/planet-earth-ii.md)
- *The Hunt* (2015), series, Executive Producer
- *Monkey Kingdom* (2015), Director, Producer
- *Bears* (2014), Director
- *Best of Faszination Blauer Planet* (2014), Director
- *Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild* (2012), Executive Producer
- *Chimpanzee* (2012), Director, Producer
- *Frozen Planet* (2011), series, Executive Producer
- *African Cats* (2011), Director
- *Earth* (2007), Director, Screenplay
- *Planet Earth: The Filmmaker's Story* (2007), Director
- *Planet Earth: The Future* (2006), series, Director
- *Planet Earth* (2006), series, Producer, Director, Executive Producer, Writer
- *Deep Blue* (2003), Director
- *The Blue Planet* (2001), series, Producer, Director, Creator
- *Life in the Freezer* (1993), series, Producer, Director
- *The Trials of Life* (1990), Producer
- *Natural World* (1983), series, Director

## Gallery

- ![Alastair Fothergill (left) and Mark Linfield at the premiere for Earth](https://film.one/media/person/103472/gallery-f75fdee13ef0.jpg) Alastair Fothergill (left) and Mark Linfield at the premiere for Earth — Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/AlastairFothergillMarkLinfieldApr09.jpg/1280px-AlastairFothergillMarkLinfieldApr09.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Photo of Alastair Fothergill](https://film.one/media/person/103472/gallery-b5f21ce5e0ba.jpg) Photo of Alastair Fothergill — Alastairfothergill, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Alastair_Fothergill.jpg/1280px-Alastair_Fothergill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Alastair Fothergill](https://film.one/media/person/103472/gallery-cbdc1c7de9a1.jpg) Alastair Fothergill — Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Alastair_Fothergill_%28April_2009%29.jpg/1280px-Alastair_Fothergill_%28April_2009%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Alastair Fothergill](https://film.one/media/person/103472/gallery-625f582f2f09.jpg) Alastair Fothergill — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 2 won

- Patron’s Medal 2012: Patron’s Medal (won)
- Cherry Kearton Medal and Award 1996: Cherry Kearton Medal and Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/alastair-fothergill