The new series is called Natural History Museum: World of Wonder and will air every Thursday from January 7 at 8pm on Channel 5.
The series documents the work of around 300 scientists at the museum and takes a look behind the scenes of the preparations for the exhibition. It explores nearly every inch of the museum, including public galleries, laboratories, scanner suites, collection rooms and dissection rooms.
Among the highlights of the programmes you will see:
Principal Curator of Mammals Richard Sabin reveals details of the Museum’s blue whale skeleton. He shaves tiny samples from Hope’s mouthplates for chemical analysis and makes fascinating new discoveries, including the fact she was carrying a calf.
Paleontologist Dr Susie Maidment opens a box from a famous dinosaur dig in Lesotho, Africa, which has never been unpacked. She discovers a rock that could contain a rare dinosaur skull that is 199 million years old.
Head of Earth Sciences Collections and planetary scientist Professor Caroline Smith has revealed a meteorite containing particles older than the solar system itself.