Well, to be fair, that's the spokesman's take on it. The truth is probably somewhere between.

How? The statement is unambiguous. The WWF also confirmed this: https://twitter.com/wwf_uk/status/1634290349098057728

I note that paragraph has since been removed.

Yes, it’s been moved to further up in the piece (less buried) and the BBC spokesperson quote has been updated to a more strident one:

“In a statement provided after the story was first published, the BBC said: “This is totally inaccurate, there is no ‘sixth episode’. Wild Isles is – and always was – a five part series and does not shy away from environmental content. We have acquired a separate film for iPlayer from the RSPB and WWF and Silverback Films about people working to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the British Isles.””

And we have always been at war with EastAsia.

Here’s the thing - they’ve shot their credibility so badly that I don’t actually believe them any more.

I mean if you want my cynical take, it goes like this. Some BBC producer wanted to make the Wild Isles series about conservation and climate change, they couldn’t get sign-off to spend BBC money on it, but they did get charities to pay for it. BBC upper management was okay with this because it was pitched as a “separate companion” film on the same topic. Once it was made the producer pushed for it to be screened as the sixth episode and was told no, so they called up their friends at The Guardian and said “I’ll be your unnamed source if you say this is about kowtowing to the radical right”. The plan was to generate pressure from the left on the BBC to air the film as if it were the sixth episode. That is why the unnamed BBC source and the BBC spokesperson are making contradictory statements.