The series highlights the huge number of different creatures that live in our gardens, which can sometimes rival the rainforest for biodiversity
17:40, 02 Apr 2026Updated 17:42, 02 Apr 2026
Doris the duck manages to keep all nine of her chicks alive, a formidable feat(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Plimsoll Productions)
The star of BBC1’s Secret Garden opener – alongside Sir David Attenborough – is Doris the duck.
Not only does the humble mallard build a nest 10 feet up in a tree rather than on the ground to prevent her eggs from drowning, she later steps in to save her nine ducklings from being eaten by an otter. Series producer Bill Markham says viewers will learn plenty from the series, which airs in the run-up to Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday on May 8, and even the veteran naturalist making new discoveries.
Bill says: “We filmed an opening piece with David in a garden in Acton. It wasn’t as exotic as filming with him in Papua New Guinea or the Himalayas, but it was still amazing. He’s still got huge enthusiasm for the subject. He can relate to it. We had a chat about the first animal he ever saw having probably been in his garden in Leicester, where he grew up. But he wrote a very nice note after narrating that river episode. He said something like, ‘I won’t tell you the number of things I didn’t know, but there were a few’. So even for the great David Attenborough, there’s still plenty for him to learn.”
The beautiful 12th century millhouse in Oxfordshire has a garden with a river all around it(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Plimsoll Productions)
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Set in five different homes dotted across the UK, Secret Garden hinges on the surprising levels of biodiversity in a typical British garden and opens with a bold claim that our backyards are almost as diverse as a patch of tropical rainforest – with some containing around 140 species of bird, 10,000 species of insect and 474 species of plant.
The first episode is set in a 12th century millhouse in Oxfordshire, and contains the first known footage of an otter hunting ducks. Another staggering moment shows the ducks talking to each other before they have hatched – from inside their individual eggs – in order to co-ordinate their emergence into the world. Bill said Doris’s decision to nest on hight signals that she is drawing on past experience. “I think that that duck probably hatched in a tree and then she thought, ‘Well, that’s what I do.’ She tried to replicate where she was born.”
Viewers will see astonishing footage of Doris’s nine fluffy hatchlings jumping headlong from the tree at just 24 hours old. “The chicks are tiny so it’s a hell of a long way down for them, but they’re very, very light,” Bill says. “And I think, more by luck than design, there was a quite a bouncy bed of dead nettles underneath the nest. So they did actually bounce around. She calls to them to tempt them down, and they’re hungry. They can’t get fed up there so they’ve got to come down to the water. A couple of them seem to push each other, but I think that was by mistake.”
One of the chicks during its 10ft fall from the nest, as it follows Doris to the water they need to feed
Her nest in the tree had been spotted by assistant producer Matt Tomlinson. “Thank goodness, because she became such a strong character and such a good story,” Bill says. “Not only were we there when all the ducklings jumped out of the nest, which was great, but also that whole otter thing brought our characters together and was really exciting.”
While Doris laid her eggs across nine consecutive days, they all have to hatch together in order for the chicks to survive. Viewers will see extraordinary footage in which the eggs themselves squeak and make noises to communicate, to make sure they are all ready, which Bill describes it as a “weird miracle”.
The house is owned by Henry and Sarah who have lived there for the past 30 but only glimpsed an otter twice. Using camera traps triggered by movement the filming team is quick to find the current resident, who lives underneath the house. And during filming they capture the hungry otter deciding to try its luck by hunting the ducklings.
Sir David tells viewers in his narration that just one in three baby ducklings make it to adulthood, which he notes is “not great odds for a mother of nine”. But realising what is happening, brave Doris herds her brood away before risking her own life to act as a decoy to draw the otter in the other direction – which works. The otter then has to content itself with a fish.
The otter decides it fancies a bit of duckling for lunch – but Doris has other ideas(Image: bbc)
All of this happens while the humans are going about their lives in the house, oblivious to the drama unfolding outside. “What I love in the river garden episode, is it’s one of the first times that an otter has been filmed hunting ducks and it’s right in the garden. It’s bonkers really that things are right on our doorstep and normally we just don’t notice them,” Bill says.
A later episode in the series, set in Scotland, will show a pine marten hunting sand martins for the first time. And in Bristol, the cameras follows hedgehogs as humans open a special “highway” for them – a particular favourite of Sir David’s as he has had them in his own garden. The other episodes are set in the Wye Valley and in the Lake District.
The series, which takes viewers up to Sir David’s 100th birthday next month, starts on Sunday(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Plimsoll Productions)
Bill is hoping that the series inspires viewers to do small things to encourage the wildlife living nearby. “We’ve seen a lot of programmes about lions and tigers and and they’re great, but I think to have these extraordinary things happening in your garden, it’s so relatable. You can decide now to put in a pond, you can decide to put out a little camera trap – they cost about £30 – so anyone can pretty much can do this and discover this whole hidden world right on their doorsteps.
“A lot of people have got this anxiety about climate change and actually this is something they can do. You can be inspired by this entertaining programme, then you can kind of walk a few yards and actually do something to help.”
Secret Garden, Easter Sunday, BBC1, 6pm
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