Hamza Yassin exposed how BBC wildlife films were created (Picture: BBC)
BBC journalist Hamza Yassin revealed intimate secrets about the channel’s wildlife reporting and claimed some scenes were faked to elicit sympathy.
The 33-year-old cameraman and former Strictly Come Dancing winner opened up about his job and the TV editing process.
Hamza rose to fame documenting wildlife and has worked on popular factual programmes including Animal Park, Countryfile and Strictly: Birds of Prey.
He admitted that some scenes in shows attempting to capture wildlife in their natural habitats were ‘dramatised’ to create more of a story.
While chatting to crowds at Cheltenham Literature Festival, he said: ‘The amount of times we’ll film a cheetah family, and she’s got three babies, and we just zoom in slightly and crop out the last baby.
‘Then you bring in a lion and the lion goes “Grr” and you think, “Oh, the lion’s killed the baby!”.
The cameraman explained why some scenes are altered to add drama (Picture: Getty Images)
The star admitted they enhance scenes to elicit emotion (Picture: Getty Images)
‘And then, five minutes of drama, and we just zoom back out again and then you say, “Ah, it’s all a happy story”.
‘No. That didn’t happen. We are dramatising what we are seeing.’
According to MailOnline, Hamza continued explaining to the audience at the festival: ‘I want to tell the truth. I want to say what’s happening in this world.’
The ex-dancing star and TV cameraman blew audiences away after he released his show following Birds of Prey across the UK.
Fans took to social media to express their awe at the programme and some explained that it had moved them to tears.
One penned: ‘Surely Hamza has to be the next David Attenborough when David stands down. A brilliant programme so far.’
Another said: ‘This is such a wonderful heartwarming programme by @shootsfilm. Absolutely magic urban portraits of Ealing peregrines having a bright green lunch too! Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey.’
Last year in 2022, the star was speaking about the beginnings of her career and revealed: ‘I was following in the family footsteps being in the medical profession but then declined it for zoology when I had a heart to heart with my parents.’
Hamza won Strictly Come Dancing (Picture: Shutterstock)
He danced his way to victory on the BBC show (Picture: PA)
He carried on telling The Guardian: ‘I said to them look, I’m severely dyslexic this is going to be an absolute nightmare. As much as I’d love to please everybody by becoming a medic I’ve got to follow my dreams of becoming a wildlife cameraman and zoologist.
‘I am someone who has fallen deeply in love with mother nature and want to look after it thanks to the people like Sir David Attenborough and Steve Irwin, God rest his soul.
‘They gave me the love of mother nature and I want to pass that on to the next generation.’
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‘I want to tell the truth.’