In this award-winning, one hour special, Sir David Attenborough investigates the amazing life story of the most famous elephant to have ever lived: Jumbo. It was claimed Jumbo was the biggest elephant in the world, a creature so large that his name became synonymous with being huge. He was a Victorian animal superstar.

With a team of scientists from around the world, Sir David has unique access to Jumbo’s skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History. What clues lay in Jumbo’s bones? Can they tell us more about this giant, how he lived and how he died?

Our care and understanding of elephants has changed dramatically over the last 200 years. At a time when these majestic giants are finally being retired from circuses across much of the western world, we explore the emotional lives of African elephants to help tell us more about the effects that captivity would have had on Jumbo. And we’ll discover the efforts being made today to rescue baby elephants and how these orphans are being transformed into wild living Jumbos of the future.