So when a half-dead African monkey arrives at the surgery Danny rises to the challenge. Ann says: “We literally walked every inch of the reserve to find the best place to build the house and then it was all created from scratch and aged to look like it had been there for more than a century in just 10 weeks!” :: Series 1 Episode Titleĭanny Trevanion didn’t become a vet to deal with overweight cats and their over protective owners. The production had its own Leopard’s Den built on the side of an overgrown hill. The series was filmed at Glen Afric, a 1500 acre game reserve and sanctuary and home to a host of African wildlife including lion, cheetah, elephant, hippo and buffalo. They all have their own characters, some of the smaller animals preferred certain people, some are more aggressive, some passive. “We needed to have a flexible, practical attitude to filming with wild animals. So, where ever possible we had the actors in shot with the wild animals.

Producer Ann Harrison-Baxter says: “This is drama, not a documentary, and so has to be character and storyline led, however television audiences are so used to brilliant wildlife documentaries that the challenge was to make our animal interaction believable. The holiday develops into a permanent adventure and eventually they decide to stay to run a game reserve. She hopes the trip, as well as being a break from their normal city routine, will bring them all closer together as a family. Sarah, Danny's second wife, decides the family should all go on holiday to return a sick monkey to its natural habitat in Africa. Set against the stunning scenery of the South African bush, Wild at Heart is the story of Danny Travanion, a widowed English vet and his new extended, warring family. It is produced by the award-winning Company Pictures whose credits include The Lakes and Shameless. This primetime ITV series stars Stephen Tompkinson and Amanda Holden.

Wild at heart african tv