The tone of the strand was set by its first Series Editor, Peter Jones, who gave his film-makers the time and budget to explore their subjects in more detail. He also decided to avoid a house style in favour of a flexible approach where the style was chosen to match the subject of the documentary. This freedom from stylistic constraints gave film-makers autonomy to make the programmes they wanted. As "Natural World" quickly established itself in the schedules, the Series Editors were able to take risks with unusual subjects which may otherwise have been avoided by broadcasters. According to Jones, "the idea was to give the audience a surprise each week. It was as far from the contemporary concept of formatted television as you could get." Some of the more unusual subjects have included plankton, wasps, cephalopods and manure ("The Wonderful World of Dung", 1991).