David Attenborough, who turns 100 today, is celebrated as Britain's greatest national treasure and a pivotal figure in television history. His career, spanning decades, has been marked by extraordinary adventures, from being besieged by birds to having 120 million crabs try to crawl up his trouser leg. Attenborough joined the BBC during television's boom and shaped the medium both on and off camera.
His early career included producing 'Coelacanth' at age 26, a show about a rediscovered ancient fish, and his first screen appearance on the gameshow 'Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?'. His first natural history series, 'Animal Patterns', debuted in 1953, and he later produced audience-friendly formats like 'It's a Small World'. The seminal 'Zoo Quest' series began in 1954, documenting expeditions to capture animals for London Zoo, and was so popular that fans stopped him in the street.
In 1956, Attenborough captured a komodo dragon in Indonesia, though he couldn't bring it home. His 1958 'Zoo Quest for the Paradise Birds' saw him charged by armed tribesmen in Papua New Guinea, but his calm 'Good afternoon' defused the situation. By 1960, he began narrating his own films, and in 1962, he encountered a giant swarm of butterflies in Paraguay, joking they mistook him for rotting fruit.
Attenborough also explored human cultures, making 'The People of Paradise' in 1960, which featured a cargo cult in Vanuatu. In 1961, he inspired 'Born Free' by visiting Joy and George Adamson and their orphaned lion cubs. His 1963 'Zoo Quest to Madagascar' finally brought him face-to-face with a coelacanth, sparking palpable excitement.
The final 'Zoo Quest' series, 'Quest Under Capricorn' in 1965, was produced in colour and saw him chase a frilled lizard in Australia. He also interviewed Yehudi Menuhin about yoga in 1968. These moments, among many others, define his legacy as a broadcaster who brought the natural world into living rooms.
