Darke has enlisted former BBC colleagues Jody Bourton and Helena Berglund as Development Producer and Head of Production respectively.

Bourton's credits include River Monsters (Animal Planet) and Nature's Weirdest Events (BBC2) while Berglund has over 15 years experience in natural history production including managing the BBC's flagship Natural World strand.

As well as producing natural history content for the global market, True to Nature will aim to make shows in the specialist factual, drama, and entertainment genres.

"My passion is to use great story telling to build life-long relationships between people and the natural world,” said Darke. “I am also excited about opportunities to expand the portfolio to include earth sciences that relate to the natural world and also topics that capture our curiosity around human nature and relationship with our planet.”

More appoinments will be announced later this month.