The BBC has flouted Sir David Attenborough’s own rule never to interfere in nature, after it told worried fans of Planet Earth II that a film crew had intervened to rescue stranded baby turtles.

Viewers of the BBC nature documentary series had been left concerned for the welfare of the newly-hatched turtles, after learning that their natural instincts had been altered by man-made lights.

While they are built to find their own way safely to the sea after hatching, the programme showed how the brights lights of buildings along the beachfront were causing turtles to turn around and crawl in the wrong direction.

Four in every five hawksbill babies, according to Sir David, who narrates the show, failed to make it through their first night after becoming disoriented, falling down drains and being crushed by cars.