TV documentary strand animating a rather dull town (3,7,5)

I believe the answer is:

the natural world

'tv documentary strand' is the definition.
(BBC documentary series)

'animating a rather dull town' is the wordplay.
'animating' is an anagram indicator (letters moved around or animated).
'a'+'rather'+'dull'+'town'='aratherdulltown'
'aratherdulltown' anagrammed gives 'THE NATURAL WORLD'.

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app