Legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough narrates the stunning 3D movie The Bachelor King, which will be showing exclusively on Sky 3D this New Year’s Eve. He tells us all about it…

This is the second of your 3D movies. How did this film come about?

Well, we had done Flying Monsters, which was a rather cautious way of putting our toe into 3D. We knew that you could do CGI in 3D no bother, and we knew that we could get close to things if you dealt with fossils, so you had two well-controlled things there that we knew you could deal with. And the next stage was then to not use those crutches and try to make a 3D natural history film. And from what we had learned with Flying Monsters, we all knew that the 3D camera is a monster itself. I mean, it could take four people just to shift it about. So you had to pick a natural history subject where you wouldn’t have to compete with what you could normally do in natural history films, where you creep up on some creature doing something unmentionable so that he doesn’t know you’re there. You cannot do that with a 3D camera, so you had to pick something that was going to be there, that was not going to be put off, that was going to look good in three dimensions and which would have a good story.

Why did you choose to go to South Georgia to film?

After chewing it over, South Georgia absolutely matched, because it has three animals that are spectacular in three dimensions: the king penguins, the elephant seals, which are huge – three tonnes – and the albatross, which has the biggest wingspan of any bird in the world. I knew that with all three of those characters you could stand as close as you liked and they wouldn’t take fright, so that was a big, big plus. And that really was what we did.

What was it like filming there?

South Georgia is a hell of a place. It is not the place for cowards and not the place to go if you’re going to be upset about being uncomfortable. It’s very cold and full of unpredictable gales. I had some real trepidation in suggesting it, because I knew some poor souls, a crew of a dozen or so, were going to have to be out there with very little support. It’s a long way away and you have to deal with these particular problems, so it was a gamble. I’ve been a couple of times to South Georgia before this film was made and I know what it’s like, the relief of getting back on board a ship that is anchored just out at sea, where it’s warm and there’s a drink. The crew decided that with the whole business of setting up, which takes so long with a 3D camera, they would sleep in tents on the beach, so that they could get on in the morning as soon as possible. I was astonished.

Is there any distinguishing mark between male and female penguins?

No, but they know. It’s a very good question and mysterious answer. The most extraordinary thing is when they come back, the chicks won’t be in the same place. The crèche has moved on, so it’s no good the parents coming back and looking in the same place, because he won’t be there, he’ll be somewhere else. He’ll be with 500 identical young chicks and the parents. Both male and female penguins can recognise the call of their own chick among1,000 others.

How long can a penguin keep a stone warm before it realises it’s not an egg?

This isn’t a scientific answer – because they do incubate for a long time and they know they’ve got a weight on their feet and they’re waiting for something to happen. When eventually it doesn’t happen and everyone else’s does, it begins to think something’s wrong.

If you could be any kind of animal in the world, what would you be?

A sloth, undoubtedly.

Do you have any idea about what your next 3D project might be?

The next one, I’m proud to say, takes the process of 3D filming one sensational step further. I wish I’d thought of it before, really. It is absolutely breathtaking. It is a time-lapse 3D of flowers and plants. In 3D, the sight of a flower bursting open, of the stamen coming out, pollen shedding and insects coming in, is not just breathtaking, it’s mesmerising. I was astonished. You just look at it over and over again and you never tire of it. We are blessed in Kew Gardens of having 90% of all known plants represented, so you can cover the world in Kew Gardens. You can take down those huge cameras and show in 3D these wonderful things happening; plants strangling one another, water lilies rising up through the pond and bursting open. That’s what we’re doing. We filmed the last shot two months ago.