Meerkat Manor
Meerkat Manor logo
Genre	Nature, documentary, drama
Created by	Caroline Hawkins[1]
Narrated by	Bill Nighy (UK/Canada) Mike Goldman (Australia) Sean Astin (USA)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	40 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mark Wild (UK) Simon Willock (OSF) Clare Birks (OSF) Mick Kaczorowski (US)
Producer(s)	Chris Barker Anne Sommerfield Lucinda Axelsson Renoir Tuahene
Editor(s)	Caroline Hawkins[1] Renoir Tuahene Amanda Young
Location(s)	Kalahari Desert
Cinematography	John Brown Robin Smith Gavin Thurston
Camera setup	Multi camera
Running time	24 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Animal Planet International
Picture format	PAL
Audio format	Surround sound
Original run	September 12, 2005 – Present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Meerkat Manor is a British television programme produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International. Blending more traditional animal documentary style footage with dramatic narration, the series tells the story of the Whiskers, one of over a dozen families of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert being studied as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long-term field study into the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of the cooperative nature of meerkats. The original programme is narrated by Bill Nighy, with the narration redubbed by Mike Goldman for the Australian airings and Sean Astin for the American broadcasts.

Meerkat Manor premiered in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2005, and the first 13-episode series concluded on October 24, 2005. With the success of the programme in the UK, Animal Planet started broadcasting it on its national channels in Australia, Canada, and the US. The series is now available in more than 160 other countries.^[2] Three series have aired in their entirety, and the fourth series is scheduled to premiere in the United States on June 6, 2008. The forth series, which will be subtitled The Next Generation will see Stockard Channing replacing Sean Astin as the narrator in the American dubbing.^[3]

Although the show faced criticism from viewers for not intervening when a meerkat was injured and faced death, as a whole Meerkat Manor has enjoyed considerable success and is now Animal Planet's top series, both on the cable channel and through its video-on-demand service. The show's experimental format broke new ground in animal documentary filming techniques and allowed viewers a long term, intimate look into the lives of its meerkat stars, breaking the traditional wall between viewer and subject found with most documentaries.

In 2007, Meerkat Manor was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards. It has won three awards at the 2006 Omni Awards, and at the 2006 and 2007 New York Festivals Award Galas. All three series of the programme have been released to DVD in both Region 1 and Region 2. In 2007, a book entitled Meerkat Manor - The Story of Flower of the Kalahari was released in the UK, detailing the life of Flower and the Whiskers before the series filming began. An upcoming feature film that will also act as a prequel to the series is due to be released in 2008.