David Attenborough signs up for landmark BBC1 natural history series The Hunt

Sir David Attenborough, who has flirted with Sky and UKTV with some of their recent factual shows, will be back in Auntie’s bosom later this year, narrating its next landmark BBC1 natural history series The Hunt.

As RadioTimes.com revealed last November, the series promises to offer a thrilling examination of predators and their prey operating in the tundra, forests, open ocean and polar regions.

But Sir David's appointment as the voice of the series was up in the air – until now.

In many ways it could not come at a better time for the BBC. Attenborough was one of the signatories to a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron criticising the Government over its stance towards the BBC's charter renewal and his latest gig marks a welcome return to the Corporation.

In many ways it's his spiritual home where he began his career with BBC radio's talks department in 1950 and made his first television appearance in Zoo Quest in 1954.

In recent years, however, he has worked with other broadcasters making Conquest of the Skies 3D and Kingdom of Plants 3D with Sky and Natural Curiosities for the UKTV channel Eden.

Have you got your tickets to see David Attenborough at the Radio Times Festival?

The Hunt is due to air this autumn and will also deploy novel editing sequences borrowed from drama and the movies to show animal hunts in as dramatic a fashion as possible.

The plan is to make the sequences in The Hunt as exciting as movie car chases with the music provided by composer Steven Price who won an Oscar for scoring the film Gravity.

After an introductory episode, each programme will focus on predators and prey in a specific habitat, taking us from the open ocean to polar regions and from the tundra to wooded regions where animals have developed astonishingly varied techniques to either get a meal – or avoid becoming one.

The subjects include polar bears, which have adapted five key hunting techniques each dependant on the condition of the ice.

But fortunately for those of a sensitive disposition, the series won't focus solely on species feasting on one another.

“Most animals fail to get their prey so we will see a lot of failure," says executive producer Alistair Fothergill. "I very much want this to focus on the prey as well as the predators and the techniques they use to survive."

The Hunt is due to air on BBC1 in autumn 2015

Tickets to see David Attenborough at the Radio Times Festival are available from the official website (click here or on the banner below for details). The festival runs 24-27 September on The Green at Hampton Court Palace.