Snow Chick

Snow Chick is the enchanting story of an emperor penguin chick’s first precarious months of life growing up in the world’s most extreme nursery.

It’s midwinter in the Antarctic, and after months of blizzards and temperatures of -60°C, male emperor penguins, who have lovingly tended their eggs, are watching and waiting for their chicks to hatch. Snow Chick is the last to emerge into this harsh, frozen world.

Narrated by Kate Winslet, The Snow Chick takes an intimate look at this tiny chick’s first precarious months on the ice, growing up in the world’s most extreme nursery. Emperor penguins are the only animals to breed in the Antarctic winter.

Snow Chick is ‘elbowed’ out of the baby gang, ventures too far for comfort, hides from chick-snatching penguins and avoids a scavenging petrel by the fluff of his back – all while slipping and skating on treacherous ice. Finally, he gets tossed unceremoniously into the open ocean – his new home for the next three years.

Filmed over a whole year, the crew endured some of the toughest conditions on earth to capture these astonishing moments of intimate behaviour.

“This has to be one of nature’s most incredible stories, and one huge adventure for such a tiny creature,” said John Downer, Director of this dramatised natural history special.