Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, Invictus) lends her voice to Love Nature‘s latest global original series, Chasing the Rains (4 x 60′; 4K & HDR), which focuses on three separate animal matriarchs seeking to overcome incredible obstacles in order to protect their families during one of Africa’s worst droughts in twenty years. Filmed beyond the jagged peaks of Mount Kenya, the series follows a unique cast of animal characters, including a heroic cheetah mother defending her precious cubs against attacks from rival predators; a rare wild dog pack battling a vicious hyena clan in a quest for food and water; and a Samburu elephant herd using intelligence and resilience to locate water in the face of a landscape turning to dust. The four-part series was filmed in collaboration with conservationists including Save The Elephants and working with a local team including Samburu elders and emerging award winning Kenyan producer Faith Musembi. The world broadcast premiere of Chasing the Rains airs Sunday, December 18 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on Love Nature in Canada during the channel’s free preview event, happening now until January 1. Love Nature is also available on Prime Video and Apple TV in Canada, with Chasing the Rains available to stream in its entirety from December 18.
Adjoa Andoh said: “Increasingly we seem to be distancing ourselves and our responses from nature as if we were not part of the natural world. This amazing documentary series – Chasing The Rains – not only reconnects us to families and relationships as vivid in the animal kingdom as in our own world, but reminds us how reliant we all are on the survival of our environment and the challenges facing us all from climate change. I’m sure you will fall as deeply in love with these animal families, as I did narrating this wonderful series, Chasing The Rains across the plains and mountains of Kenya.”
Filmed over an eight month period, the series begins at the end of the long rains, when river valleys, plains and mountains are flushed with new growth. Water is the life-blood of this sprawling landscape and all life here dances to the tune of the rains. Many months or sometimes years pass before a drop of rain falls so all species must learn to survive these droughts, which are increasing in intensity due to climate change. During filming, the camera crew captured very rare and unusual animal behaviour while entrenched in the wild and living amongst the animals. This footage includes five male cheetahs hunting together in alliance, a cheetah mother relentlessly tracking her lost cub, and a bull elephant harvesting fruit by shaking a tree.
Adjoa Andoh most recently won global acclaim as Lady Danbury in the smash hit series Bridgerton, in which she was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress at the 2021 NAACP Image Awards. In the past two years, she has also held major TV roles in Fractured, Silent Witness and The Witcher. Her many other television appearances include regulars in Doctor Who, Casualty and Law & Order UK. Andoh is also a renowned stage actor, celebrated for lead roles at the National Theatre (Stuff Happens, His Dark Materials) and The Royal Shakespeare Company (Julius Caesar, Troilus & Cressida, The Odyssey). In 2019 she created, co-directed, and played Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, in the UK’s first all women-of-colour production. She made her Hollywood debut in 2009, starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus. Other film appearances include Adulthood, Brotherhood and I Is A Long Memoried Woman. She’s also been a BBC radio actor for over 30 years and is an award-winning narrator of over 150 audiobooks.
Chasing the Rains is produced by Maramedia for Love Nature and Sky Nature in association with ARTE France. The series is executive produced by Nigel Pope and Jackie Savery and filmed and directed by Justin Purefoy and Faith Musembi. Alison Barrat, SVP, Development & Production executive produces the series on behalf of Love Nature. For Sky Nature, Poppy Dixon was the executive producer. Blue Ant International handles pre-sales and licensing opportunities in other available territories.
To create Chasing The Rains, the producers worked with Save The Elephants which has projects across Africa focused on tracking, studying, and protecting elephants. Love Nature saw a great opportunity to incorporate Chasing The Rains in its Love Nature Gives Back program, to raise awareness and funds for Save the Elephants. Love Nature fans now have unique opportunities to support Save the Elephants and other conservation organizations, through the Love Nature Gives Back website.
