Having so far uncovered the secrets of whales, elephants and octopuses, National Geographic has turned the camera towards a natural history staple – the penguin – for its latest series.

The opening episode of Secrets of the Penguins had its UK premiere in front of a packed RTS audience at Bristol’s Watershed cinema, and was followed by a Q&A.

Executive producer Martin Williams explained how he used the franchise’s existing template to craft its fourth instalment: “[The Secrets of franchise] is about blue-chip photography, it’s about unravelling revelations about the animals involved, and also taking the viewer on a journey at the character level.

“The other secret sauce in this franchise is bringing our human characters into the films themselves,” added Williams, who founded Talesmith, which made Secrets of the Penguins.

The human character in question is Bertie Gregory, an award-winning wildlife cinematographer who spent weeks living alongside and filming the emperor penguins of Antarctica for the opening episode.

“We often had them coming through camp to see who these weird aliens were,” Gregory said. “You really get to know them.”

Gregory leads the viewer through the stories of these penguins, but said of his role: “I feel kind of embarrassed that wildlife TV presenters always get way too much credit.” He went on to praise the work of his fellow crew members, with a special shout-out for polar safety advisor Scott Webster.

The work of scientists, identifying new behaviours and fresh narratives, was also crucial to the series. “It was a bit of a jigsaw, trying to work out how these stories fitted together,” said Williams, “but the scientists were at the heart of making those decisions and trying to tell a story that hadn’t been told before.”

One such story was seen by millions over a year before the show’s release, as a standout moment of filming was put out on National Geographic socials. The clip showed emperor penguins jumping off a 50-foot cliff – a behaviour that had never been filmed before.

Gregory explained the clip’s origin: “As soon as we located that group of chicks, I wanted to make sure we had absolutely no influence on whether they jumped or not, so I spent a lot of time downwind, a couple of hundred metres away… just hovering, just watching.” Once he had confirmed that this was natural behaviour, Gregory began filming.

When the footage made it back to the National Geographic offices, the decision was made to put it on social media. Gregory recalled the phrase that was used: “This is gonna break the internet!”

The footage in the series could not have been captured without advances in technology. The cliff jump was filmed entirely using drones, as Gregory explained: “There was no way of us getting any closer to film with a traditional camera.”

The cameras being used also had to survive temperatures as low as -47°C . “[Kit company] Films@59 did a bunch of freezer tests,” said Gregory. “They basically tried to break the equipment.”

The series does not shy away from climate and environmental breakdown. Williams explained that including this messaging was a no-brainer: “I don’t think you can tell many natural history stories without reporting on the truth.”

“The most moving thing with the emperor penguins is that there aren’t many animals in the world whose sole threat is climate change,” said Gregory. “Most emperor penguins will never see a human, so most of them will never see the cause of their greatest threat.”

He added: “It’s important that we get people to care about [the natural world].”

The RTS West of England event, in association with Wildscreen, was held on 8 April at the Watershed cinema in Bristol. Secrets of the Penguins is on the National Geographic channel and Disney+.