Headquarters:
Bristol, UK
RECENT PROJECTS:
Queer Planet (Peacock); A Real Bug’s Life (Disney+/Nat Geo)
UPCOMING TITLES:
Secret Garden (BBC); Extreme Planet Earth (ITV)
Perhaps best known for its forays into wildlife and natural history programming, the prodco headed up by industry veteran Grant Mansfield still carries a lot of muscle in that space, but is flexing that muscle to explore new territory within the genre.
Last year, the company saw great success through Disney’s “turn our scripted IP into family-friendly documentary fare” M.O. with four-time Emmy winner A Real Bug’s Life (pictured), which was renewed for a second season beginning this past January. The prodco also explored the diversity in wildlife sexuality via Queer Planet for Peacock, in time for Pride Month.
The year ahead promises to have Plimsoll extending its reach beyond natural history. Virgin Island, an unscripted competition series produced with ITV America for Hulu, sounds like it will be pretty much what it says on the tin; while the company’s new fact-ent series Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters is set to debut on ITV this summer, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the iconic Steven Spielberg blockbuster Jaws.
Ahead for 2026 is Extreme Planet Earth, a six-part event series for ITV that explores the resilience of wildlife as it endures the unpredictability of nature in an ever-more unstable world; and the five-part Secret Garden for BBC One, which will document the array of wildlife that exists in urban gardens across the UK. —Barry Walsh
Keeping it fresh: “This past year, we celebrated a massive win with four Emmy Awards for A Real Bug’s Life on Nat Geo/Disney+, narrated by the phenomenal Awkwafina, and we’re gearing up for a groundbreaking live event that will take us to new heights,” says Mansfield. “Despite the ongoing challenge of tightening budgets, we’re channeling that pressure into creativity, hybridizing genres to keep our work fresh and fun – proof that necessity breeds invention.”