You've heard the theory about monkeys and typewriters haven't you? Well, the BBC are doing their own version of it, except they've replaced word processors with cameras. Oh, and there are a reasonable amount of chimps as opposed to an infinite amount of monkeys. The human camerafolk are getting twitchy as the BBC will be looking to cut costs soon.

Yessir, the world's first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary. Our simian cousins created the movie using a specially designed chimp-proof camera given to them by primatologists.

The film-making exercise is part of a scientific study into how chimpanzees perceive the world and each other... and just how much better we humans are at using technology.

The idea for the film came from the mind of primatologist Betsy Herrelko and over 18 months, she introduced the cameras to a group of 11 chimpanzees living in a newly built enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland.

Ms Herrelko set the chimps two challenges. The first was to teach the chimps how to use a touchscreen to select different videos. By doing so, Ms Herrelko could investigate which types of images chimps prefer to watch.

The second challenge was to give the apes a "Chimpcam", a recording camera housed in a chimp-proof box.

Of course, it's unlikely that our dimwitted pals had a clue what they were really filming and understood what was going on... however, people like it when apes do things like this.

So while the results may not be too thrilling, we humans can thrill at the notion of simply giving chimps something to play with and we, some TV to watch.

Click here to see a preview of the film, shown tomorrow on BBC Two, 8pm