Early Career
Nightingale attended the University of Oxford and graduated with a first class degree in Zoology. After working as a freelance science journalist for New Scientist, he joined the BBC in 1983 as a researcher and assistant producer in a variety of television genres, including current affairs, regional programmes, science and education.
His first natural history production credits were for a number of programmes in the Wildlife on One series. He later moved on to the challenges of engaging audiences with series on fossils and plants as the producer of Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives and The Private Life of Plants, both of which were collaborations with veteran broadcaster David Attenborough.
In 1995, Nightingale took on the role of Series Editor for The Natural World, BBC Two's long-running flagship natural history series. Under his editorship, The Natural World's programmes won awards at every major international wildlife film festival as well as the Royal Television Society award for Best Documentary Strand.
He went on to produce five episodes of BBC One's Wildlife Specials as executive producer. He was also executive producer of several series in the Continents strand for BBC Two, including Wild Africa and Wild Down Under. In 2003, Nightingale went on to become Head of the Natural History Unit, the largest wildlife film-making production unit in the world,. He led the Unit for 6 years; from February 2003 until June 2009.
Read more about this topic: Neil Nightingale
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