Premieres Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV
Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, "Wilding" tells the story of a young couple, Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree, who bets on nature for the future of their failing, 400-year-old estate.
The couple finds that their land and soil, once fruitful and full of life, has been decimated by decades of plowing and chemicals used in the modern farming industry. They discover the land needs a complete overhaul that can only be done by letting it go back to its ancient, natural processes and introducing ancient wildlife species that once roamed there freely.
Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a mix of animals both tame and wild, in the hopes that their beloved family estate can return once again to its former glory and more, showing the audience what the enchanting and ancient countryside of England should be. The film documents this grand experiment which became one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.
The project highlights how tamed animals are adept at leaving their domesticated lives, flourishing in an environment that nurtures them, which in turn changes the landscape, even attracting species back from the verge of extinction. In just twenty years the land is transformed from barren farmland into one of the most important biodiversity hot spots in Britain. This film offers the rarest of things: a story of environmental hope.
Credits: Produced by three-time Oscar-winning production company Passion Pictures; partnered with Oscar-nominated and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning HHMI Tangled Bank Studios. The film is directed by five-time Emmy Award-winning David Allen and photographed by multi BAFTA & Emmy Award-winning cinematographers Tim Cragg and Simon de Glanville. The musical score is composed by Biggi Hilmars and Grammy-nominated Jon Hopkins, cited by The New Yorker as “one of the most celebrated electronic musicians of his generation.”
