Sinners favourite Wunmi Mosaku reveals how her own upbringing helped take on key role in breathtaking new documentary

Disney+ and National Geographic are taking viewers on a journey like never before in a brand new seven-part series that captures more of Africa than any production before.

Africa Earth's Wild Home journeys into the furthest reaches of Africa, revealing new species, never-before-seen documented behaviours and the continent's most spectacular ecosystems through epic stories of resilience, drama and survival.

Award-winning actress Wunmi Mosaku narrates the magnificent series and found a striking personal element in the stories being told, something that helped deepen her storytelling as the episodes went on.

"The stories I feel most connected to are those of the mothers, the mothers and the mums and dads trying to figure out how to do this," Mosaku told Radio Times in an exclusive interview, "Like, how to raise their children and keep them safe and fed, and I'm like, 'Oh, I recognise that in me. I recognise the the wolves trying to figure out how to hunt these birds that we've never seen them do this either, and this is new to them, and they're going this way and then they realise actually tomorrow we've got to work together. I'm like, 'Oh yeah, that sounds like parenting. That sounds like marriage.'"

Mosaku continues: "Or the cheetah and her three cubs. I can't help but think of my mum, in this terrain where her speed, her superpower, is not actually a superpower or even able to be utilised. I think of that as like, you know, an immigrant parent raising three children in a terrain that doesn't showcase their strength in the same way, and the jeopardy of that danger.

"She's running downhill after a kudu, if she breaks a bone, that is it for that whole family, and that pressure. I really recognise that in my upbringing, and I think of my matriarch, my mum, as this incredible, strong figure who is constantly running and braving these dangerous and difficult terrains, but she smashes it. She catches the kudu, and [it shows that] we're able to thrive and survive. And so yeah, I saw so many parallels, and take away the screens and the likes and the social media and the magazines, take away all of that, and actually, we are part of this animal kingdom too, and we're all kind of navigating the same obstacles of how do we survive?"

The actress explained that as she watched the sequences take place between the animals, those personal stories came through one-by-one, admitting "each story felt like a character, felt like a person that I could understand psychologically in a way."

She added: "I can't take any credit for that. That is all the writers that they were able to to bring out the humanity so that we can empathise with them."

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Africa Earth's Wild Home is available to watch on Disney+ and National Geographic now.

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Authors

Katelyn Mensah is the Senior Entertainment Writer for Radio Times, covering all major entertainment programmes, reality TV shows and the latest hard-hitting documentaries. She previously worked at The Tab, with a focus on reality TV and showbiz news and has obtained a BA (Hons) in Journalism.