Dinosaur With Stephen Fry | Preview (Channel 5)

Stephen Fry, celebrated actor, author and writer is magically transported back in time to chart the 180-million-year story of the dinosaur.

In this landmark tv treat for all ages we follow Stephen into a hyper-real world where prehistoric beasts roam. As if transported into a life-size video game, Stephen encounters all the dinosaurs that we know and love.

Using the latest CGI engines that allow interaction within both the digitally created worlds and with the dinosaurs themselves, and cutting-edge virtual studio technology, Stephen immerses himself in these magical landscapes, to come face-to-face with the most iconic of these pre-historic beasts.

In this first episode Stephen is transported 155 million years back in time to the first Golden Age of the dinosaurs, the Jurassic, when they grew into giants. He explores the conifer forests and fern prairies that were their home, to encounter a monstrous plant-eating Diplodocus, and a deadly predator: the Allosaurus.

Expert Dr Susie Maidment arrives to decode these dinosaurs’ remarkable behaviour – including the Diplodocus’ acrobatic ability to rear up on its hind legs to feed in the treetops, and the Allosaurus’ terrifying attack strategy, hacking at prey with its axe-like jaw to trigger catastrophic blood loss.

Away from this magical world, experts set out to answer some of the greatest mysteries of this chapter in dino history.

A chance discovery in the Natural History Museum reveals the world’s oldest dinosaur fossil, and as an epic battle erupts in front of Stephen in our dino-world, back in the present day we test the Allosaurus bite theory with a huge remote-controlled robotic jaw.

Dinosaur With Stephen Fry begins Sunday 12th February at 7pm on Channel 5.