Norton and Bruce join Sir David to 'Save Planet Earth'

The BBC has revealed the full list of celebrities taking part in its forthcoming Saving Planet Earth series - including a journey to the lairs of endangered Ethiopian wolves by the comedian Graham Norton and a search for Indian tigers by the newsreader Fiona Bruce.

The nine-part series will commemorate the BBC Natural History Unit's 50th anniversary. It is being billed as a campaigning sequel to the hugely successful Planet Earth, presented by Sir David Attenborough, and will culminate in the largest-ever televised appeal on behalf of conservation charities.

The series, which starts in June with a show hosted by Sir David, will also include trips by the singer Will Young to find lowland gorillas hunted for bushmeat in Gabon, a journey by Jack Osbourne to study Namibian elephants, and Carol Thatcher's quest to see how long-line fishing endangers albatross in the Falklands. The television gardener Alan Titchmarsh will join Sir David to present the celebrities' shows.

Some of the most emotional moments of the series include footage of Norton's trip to Ethiopia, in which he spends several days camping 3,000 metres up in the Ethiopian mountains amid freezing temperatures with the BBC's wolf team, hoping to catch a glimpse of the endangered pack animals.

Another breathtaking moment captures Bruce's journey to India, where she comes within metres of a tiger. In another episode, the Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman endures several nights under tarpaulin in the jungles of Cambodia to see how the country's crocodiles are coming under threat from the local skin trade.

Paul Appleby, the producer of Saving Planet Earth, said the locations had been selected to illustrate the achievements of global conservation groups. "We have reached a point where we need to act in support of conservation. We are in the 'sixth extinction' phase of animals on the planet, which is caused by human actions," he said.

"But instead of tracking the decline of animals, the aim of the series is to look at places where decline has bottomed out and turned around. We have selected these nine projects, which all revolve around local communities, to show how well they can work to ensure the future of endangered species. These are very emotional journeys taken by the people involved."

At the end of the series, the celebrities will join hosts Sir David and Titchmarsh for a live fundraising finale, which will follow the same format as Children in Need, to draw funds for the Saving Plant Earth Fund. The fund plans to secure enough money for several major projects working with endangered species across the world for the next two to three years.

The opening programme will also use previously unseen footage from the award-winning series Planet Earth alongside Sir David's explanation of how the destruction of crucial habitats is effecting the future of the planet's animals.

Yesterday, Sir David highlighted the need to raise conservation funds and said the project was of the utmost significance for future generations. "Some scientists suggest that up to a quarter of animal species could be extinct by 2050. But it's not too late - you can be involved in Saving Planet Earth. If you are a child, this is your future. If you're a parent, it's your legacy. The time to act is now," he added.

Other high-profile names include the actors Brian Blessed, Tom Conti and Shobna Gulati, the comedian Sean Hughes and the singer Myleene Klass, who will explore the plight of threatened wildlife across the UK in simultaneous regional programmes during the live appeal. The focus in Britain will range from the plight of basking sharks in the south-west of England to eagles in Scotland.

Species on the screen

Crocodiles

Edith Bowman, on the leather trade's threat to Cambodian crocodiles

Turtles

Journalist Saira Khan looks at turtle egg stealing in Sri Lanka

Orang-Utans

Nick Knowles discovers that orang-utans in Borneo suffer from the deforestation of their habitat for commercial crops

Ethiopia

Comedian Graham Norton reveals that Ethiopian wolves' numbers are being threatened by domestic dogs

Elephants

Jack Osbourne finds that Namibian elephants are in competition with man for food and water

Albatross

Carol Thatcher sees how long-line fishing hits albatross numbers in the Falklands

Rhinoceros

Phil Tufnell travels to India to highlight the plight of rhinos still hunted for their horn

Gorillas

Will Young finds out about the problems faced by lowland gorillas who are hunted for bushmeat and whose habitat, in Gabon, is being destroyed by logging

Tigers

Newsreader Fiona Bruce travels to India to search for tigers who are suffering because of habitat loss and poaching

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