The Real T. rex with Chris Packham: an attempt at a truthful Tyrannosaurus

Presenter Chris Packham and palaeontologist Dave Hone explain the challenges involved in recreating Tyrannosaurus rex for a new BBC documentary

Tyrannosaurus rex is probably the most famous extinct animal, but thanks to Hollywood and various out-of-date books, there are a lot of misconceptions out there about this incredible dinosaur. There is too much hype and not enough good science surrounding dinosaurs generally - and Tyrannosaurus in particular. A new BBC documentary, The Real T. rex with Chris Packham, has attempted to bring our knowledge of this iconic animal into the 21st century - not an easy task, as presenter Packham and palaeontologist Dave Hone explain ...

Chris: I fell for a dinosaur in 1965 ... but it was the wrong dinosaur. It was fat, slow, stupid and wandered around in swamps. It was grey, or green, and by the time I was ten I suspected that the lumbering monster from the movies and TV - and even my treasured books - was just not viable as an animal. And over the following years the science moved on, slowly, but the public image just didn't evolve. Dinosaurs became hot-blooded ... but still plodded, and even when the last instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise was released ... the characters were still scaly, even when we knew they had feathers. It's time to put the monster to bed and bring out the real, living breathing animal - that's what I wanted to do for The Real T. rex.