The BBC is to film two 60 minute shows into the world of honeybees, hosted by wildlife everyman, Chris Packham and wannabe but allergic beekeeper, Martha Kearney.
The presenters will be joined by bee expert Professor Adam Hart for Hive Alive, which will explore the remarkable lives of honey bees.
The (mini) series will present “a lively television event which will reveal the world of the honeybee as we’ve never seen it before”, says the BBC Media website.
“Cutting edge technology, exciting new experiments and an army of bee experts will help us discover just how amazing these insects are and what we can do to help them to help us.”
Which, given the way spring/summer/autumn/winter/allpointsinbetween watches have gone probably means we will have to put up with expensive, useless experiments and graphics delivering dumbed down nonsense that most six year olds will find patronising.
But hey, it’s more bees, so that’s got to be good for another 50p on my jars of honey.
In all seriousness, it’s great the BBC has backed Kearney in this, but I fear they’ll drop it like a difficult subject in Eastenders once they’ve wrung the viewing figures out of it.
The series will be shot by Impossible Pictures, the makers of Walking with Dinosaurs, but there is no published transmission date as yet.
More details at http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/hive-alive
Seven Kings Apiary 
Please please please talk to an educated, progressive beekeeper who is clued up on recent research, and has completed their module studies recently. We’re all tired of seeing well-meaning amateurs/novices making rookie mistakes and experienced but stuck-in-the-past Beekeepers trying to keep up with the fast moving, media savvy youngsters of today. It’s a wonderful, fascinating, absorbing rewarding hobby and it deserves better.
Perhaps you should be addressing this to the production company, Caroline. Valid concerns, but they need to hear them.