Took me a while to get my head around this one. How do you adapt an epic TV series about the natural world into a stage show, and then put it on at the O2 Arena? Will there be lions and numbats and killer whales variously prancing and flopping about on stage? David Attenborough interviewing a man in a polar bear costume?

Then I decided to actually read the press release rather than pondering its title.

Turns out that HD footage from the programme will be projected onto a giant screen with live accompaniment from the 84-piece BBC Concert Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Haley Glennie-Smith.

The two July 30 shows will be organised by BBC Worldwide, the commercial wing of the BBC. Ticket sales should help recoup some of the vast swathes of money spent on this most luxuriant (and brilliant) of TV series, which took four years to make and involved 71 film crews.

The show’s narrator, Sir David Attenborough, is also playing a prominent virtual role at the Natural History Museum in a new augmented reality extravaganza. The film, Who Do You Think You Really Are, takes visitors on a journey through evolution using impressive techno-wizadry and the dulcet tones of Sir David. More from the Guardian here, and on their Science podcast.