New TV series goes behind the scenes at Longleat to celebrate 75th anniversary

A brand new three-part series 'Inside Longleat' is coming to Channel 5 on 22 April 2025. 

Step behind the scenes of the world famous Longleat House and Gardens as it celebrates 75 years of being open to the public. 

Lord and Lady Bath have granted unprecedented access to their stately home and safari park, as we meet a wide selection of the 600 people who work there – from animal keepers to cleaners, gardeners to cooks, historians to handymen, as they reveal what it takes to keep a grand estate open for up to one millions annual visitors.

Image: Ceawlin Thynn, Lord Bath

We also meet many of the 1,000 animals – from lions and rhinos to red pandas and koalas; and join in with the spectacular 75th anniversary celebrations.

Image: Longleat 

Episode 1 -  With around one million visitors a year, Longleat house and safari park is one of Britain’s busiest tourist spots. It is also one of the country’s great private estates, owned by the same family for over 450 years. 

Lord and Lady Bath have granted exclusive and unprecedented access to their stately home, as they celebrate 75 years of being open to the public.

In this episode, Ceawlin Thynn, the current Lord Bath, explains how his Grandfather, Henry, 6th Marquess of Bath, worked alongside Jimmy Chipperfield of Chipperfield Circus fame, to open up the world’s first safari park outside of Africa.

In 1966 Jimmy Chipperfield and the Marquess brought in 50 lions from as far away as Ethiopia and Kenya, and released them into a one hundred acre fenced reserve. 

Using amateur footage from the period never seen before on British television, we show that whilst the public flocked to the safari park, not everyone was happy to see big game roaming freely in the Wiltshire countryside. 

Resident safari guide Dave The Legend hosts a double decker tour of Monkey Kingdom for a box seat view of the monkey mayhem caused by the resident troupe of rhesus macaques biting, chewing, and tearing their way through washers, wipers, aerials, hub-cabs and number plates of the passing cars.

It’s fun for those onboard the bus, but are the car drivers smiling? 

Image: Longleat zookeepers Ben & Dean 

And we join rookie zookeeper Ben as he begins a three-month probation period in an attempt to secure his dream job.

Aside from a short period aspiring to be an ice cream man, Ben has wanted to work at Longleat his whole life.

Now, after years of study, he’s finally got the chance to work with everything from sloths to sea lions, and gorillas to red pandas. But in a highly competitive field, does he have what it takes to become a permanent member of the zookeeping staff?

• For more information about Longleat visit www.longleat.co.uk