British TV legend finally bringing ‘profound’ BBC series back after 18 years

Bruce Parry is bringing back Tribe which has not been on TV since 2007 (Picture: BBC Pictures)

After nearly two decades away from our screens, the BBC has rebooted a ‘groundbreaking’ documentary series.

Tribe, presented by filmmaker and Indigenous rights advocate Bruce Parry, is returning for a brand new three-part series this year.

In the show, Bruce, 55, will travel to some of the most remote corners of the world to visit communities living radically different lives to our own.

This includes visits to the Waimaha people, who live on a remote tributary of the Amazon, and the Mucubal in the depths of the Namib desert.

Bruce is the first foreign visitor to live within each community and films much of his experience on his own camera.

The TV star says: ‘It’s been over twenty years since Tribe first aired. Living with people who experience the world in such profoundly different ways was eye-opening then, but today it feels vital.

In the three-part special, he will live with different Indigenous communities (Picture: BBC Pictures) The docuseries originally ran for three seasons between 2005 and 2007 (Picture: BBC Pictures)

‘I believe we have so much to learn from those who still live in deep connection with the world around them. It feels a huge privilege that the BBC has allowed me to explore these places and themes once again.’

Tribe first aired on the BBC in 2005 and continued for three seasons before concluding in 2007.

During the show, Bruce immersed himself in 15 different tribal communities in countries including Mongolia, Venezuela and Bhutan.

Tribe was twice nominated for the Bafta for best factual series although the show did receive criticism at the time for appealing to stereotypes of exoticism for entertainment purposes and for not using scientific, anthropological practices.

Much of the footage in Tribe is shot by Bruce alone (Picture: BBC Pictures) Tribe did receive some criticism during its original run (Picture: BBC Pictures)

In a 2007 interview with Country Life, Bruce admitted to being ‘quite naive’ in the early days of the show and shared regret over advising a tribe in Gabon against having a road in their village.

He said: ‘They were my friends, and they were telling me, “We want a road because we want goods to arrive”. I had no right to tell them what to do.’

After Tribe concluded, Bruce spent an entire year travelling along the Amazon to explore the forces affecting the world’s largest rainforest and its people.

Produced for the BBC, the resulting show Amazon went on to win the Bafta for best factual series in 2009.

Bruce has not made a TV show since 2011 (Picture: Blast Films)

In 2011, Bruce made his last TV series for the BBC, Arctic, during which he lived with remote communities including the Caribou people in Canada.

He has not been on-screen for eight years since his 2017 film Tawai – A Voice from the Forest.

Before his TV career, Bruce served in the Royal Marines; later becoming a trek leader for various expeditions throughout Indonesia.

He first appeared on TV in 2002 in an episode of BBC’s Extreme Lives series entitled Cannibals and Crampons.

Tribe is coming to BBC and BBC iPlayer.

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