Twenty years ago, Sergeant Pepper told the band to play Our Lord God David Attenborough started making a series of programmes about the different groups of living organisms that inhabit the lands of our planet – birds and mammals, plants and insects, amphibians and reptiles. He looked at the history of each one from its first appearance and surveyed the multitude of different forms into which it now evolved. It was, of course, the brilliant Life on Land. Now, this landmark series is available on a cool 15 disc set Life on Land DVD Encyclopaedia!

All the series in this breath-taking collection have been indexed to provide rapid reference to each species mentioned and to behavioural categories such as mimicry, camouflage or courtship. Making this box set totally unique, the index can be accessed on screen through the menu on each of the discs and with just one click the relevant area of interest can be summoned on to the screen within a few moments. Alternatively a precise reference can be found in an accompanying hard-backed book.

Featured are…

The First Eden – This four-part series is a glorious portrait of the landscape, wildlife and plants of the Mediterranean. The First Eden is an excursion to the Mediterranean detailing the long history of mankind’s relationship with this incredible environment. From the earliest human settlements to the cities of today, from the deserts of North Africa to the forests of southern Europe, this series tells the dramatic story of man and nature at work.

Life of Mammals – Sir David Attenborough introduces us to the most diverse group of animals ever to live on Earth, from the smallest – the two-inch Pygmy Shrew, to the largest – the Blue Whale; from the slowest – the sloth, to the swiftest – the cheetah; from the least attractive – the Naked Mole Rat, to the most irresistible – a human baby. This is the story of 4,000 species which conquered the farthest places on earth. With bodies kept warm by thick coats of fur and their developing young protected and nourished within their bodies, they have managed to colonise every part of the globe, dry or wet, hot or cold.

Life in the Undergrowth – Join Sir David Attenborough on his groundbreaking exploration into the bizarre, ferocious and surprisingly beautiful world of the invertebrates! Not just bugs and beetles, but exotic cicadas, neon glow worms, intricate silk-weaving spiders and iridescent dragonflies – not to mention a whole host of other incredible life forms and intimate, startling behaviour.

Life of Birds – Birds represent the largest animal group on the planet. With over 9,000 species of birds alive today, what is the secret of their phenomenal success? Three years in the making, Sir David Attenborough investigates the behaviour of this perfectly adapted life form – their remarkable strategies for finding food, their complex social systems, and their ingenious and often bizarre ways of mating and breeding.

Private Life of Plants – Filmed from the plant’s point of view, using computer animations, fibre-optics and time-lapse photography, Sir David Attenborough reveals plants as they have never been seen before – on the move and dangerously devious. Each programme in this magnificent series takes one of the major problems of life – growing, finding food, reproduction – and the varied ways plants have evolved to solve it.

Life in Cold Blood – In telling the epic story of the reptiles and amphibians – the most enduringly successful animals ever to walk on land – Sir David Attenborough completes his overview of life on the planet. The very latest technology enables extraordinary and previously unseen behaviour to be captured in intimate detail, overturning the myth that cold blooded life is slow, solitary and primitive and revealing these creatures to be as dramatic, social, sophisticated and passionate as warm blooded animals.

Hitting the shelves on 3rd November 2008 and retailing at £99.99. Start dropping Christmas present hints now.