Sir David Attenborough is 100 today. The naturalist has inspired generations to learn more about the world, bringing wildlife, from dinosaurs to polar bears, into the homes of hundreds of millions of television viewers. His hushed and reverential whisper has narrated almost every aspect of life on Earth for more than 70 years. But the presenter admits he has never liked fame — and believes that the credit should really go to others.
In a recent interview he said: 'I have the greatest job in the world. What a privileged time I've had. People provide me with wonderful pictures of things we've never seen before and ask me to write a sentence or two on it.' He has even joked that he only got a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II because Buckingham Palace confused him with his older brother Richard, the actor and director who died in 2014 aged 90.
Early Life and Career
Sir David's own adventures began when he was given a fire salamander as a pet by his father Frederick on his eighth birthday. Before the Second World War, he would race around on his Raleigh bike looking for newts, grass snakes, dragonflies, and fossils in the English countryside. Sir David attended the University of Cambridge before serving in the Royal Navy from 1947 to 1949. He started at the BBC in 1952, although it was behind the camera rather than in front of it because his bosses considered his teeth too prominent.
But everything changed in 1954 when Sir David, then aged 28, was dispatched with a cameraman to find a rare jungle bird for the show Zoo Quest. He was asked to step in after a zoo keeper who had been lined up for the job fell ill — and the rest is history. He had no plans to travel the world and was already married to his wife Jane. Their marriage would last for 47 years until her death from a brain haemorrhage in 1997. They had two children, Robert and Susan. Robert is an academic in Australia while Susan, a former teacher, works with her father.
Pioneering Television Work
In his wildlife series and films since then, now through the century barrier, Sir David brought footage of animals never seen before on TV into the homes of millions of Britons. The seminal Life On Earth, which was three years in the making and his first series in colour, was released in 1979 and has been watched by an estimated 500 million people globally alone. He has vowed never to retire and plans to be involved in filmmaking about the natural world until he dies.
Born on May 8, 1926, his interest in nature started as a child when he collected fossils. He went on to gain a Natural Sciences degree from Clare College, Cambridge, after attending Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester. It was at school in Leicestershire that he discovered his passion for the natural world. Speaking recently, he admitted he felt sorry for the children of today. He was free to cycle along roads now choked with traffic. He said to The Times in 2020: 'I think it's terrible that children should grow up without knowing what a tadpole is. Just awful. I can't criticise other people how they bring up their children, but in my time I could, and did, get on a bicycle and cycle 15 miles to a quarry and spend the day looking for dragonflies, grass snakes and newts, as well as fossils.'
Bravery and Environmental Advocacy
Sir David has proved to be as brave and imaginative as he is warm and conscientious. He writes his own scripts, and although he says he dislikes writing, he won a major literary prize for his book The Life Of Birds before the series even screened. A committed Londoner, he is equally at home in the wildest and most remote parts of the world. His combination of charm and an ability to put across his wide knowledge in an attractive and compelling way has been much-imitated but rarely replicated.
Long before environmental issues were making daily headlines, he was a fervent green campaigner both on and off screen. His 2000 series State Of The Planet and Are We Changing Planet Earth? in 2006 dealt heavily with environmental issues such as global warming. As a younger man, he often travelled in economy class on flights, only accepting upgrades if they were extended to his crew as well. When he turned 75, the BBC reportedly told him he should fly in business class. He still frequently diverts praise for his work to those behind the camera.
Sir David has shown a lack of fear in alarming situations, including being attacked by an army of ants and an amorous capercaillie. Having studied life in all its various forms for over 70 years, his attitude to the natural world has changed. When his career began, wild creatures were seen as curiosities to be tracked, captured and brought back to British zoos to be stared at, and Zoo Quest reinforced that Victorian notion. In the series he would travel with staff from London Zoo to a tropical country to capture an animal for its collection. In his much later series Attenborough: 60 Years In The Wild, the transition to a more respectful attitude towards animals and the natural world was a dominant theme.
Behind the Camera and Management Roles
David's pioneering efforts on screen have been matched by those off camera, as the man responsible for introducing colour television into Britain after he became Controller of BBC Two in 1965. Four years later, he was appointed director of programmes with editorial responsibility for both of the BBC's TV networks. He introduced popular sports such as snooker to TV as well as the hit series The Forsyte Saga. But he could not spend too long behind a desk and even though he was tipped for the post of Director General, he quit management in 1973 to resume programme-making, declaring: 'I haven't even seen the Galapagos Islands.' A stream of spectacular series soon followed, starting with Eastwards With Attenborough, exploring South East Asia, and followed by The Tribal Eye, which examined tribal art.
Iconic Series and Awards
It is estimated that 500 million people worldwide watched his amazingly successful 13-part series, Life On Earth, which was regarded as the most ambitious series ever produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. Five years later came the sequel, The Living Planet, in 1984 followed by the final part of this trilogy, The Trials Of Life. Sir David also wrote and presented two shorter series, The First Eden on the long history of mankind's relationship with the natural world in the lands around the Mediterranean, and Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives, about fossils. In 1993 he presented the spectacular Life In The Freezer, which was a celebration of Antarctica, and two years later, the epic The Private Life Of Plants. It was in 1996 that he fulfilled a lifelong ambition to make a special film about the elusive birds of paradise, entitled, appropriately, Attenborough In Paradise.
Species Named After Him
Sir David Attenborough's ability to bring the natural world to the viewing public has inspired many a researcher to name newly discovered species after him. From butterflies to pygmy locusts to the Attenborosaurus dinosaur, the naturalist has lent his name to many plants and animals. Here are some other species carrying his name:
- The Attenborough's hawkweed or Hieracium attenboroughianum – the wildflower became the first living species in the UK and Ireland to be named after him. It was discovered more than 10 years ago in the Brecon Beacons but it took a decade for scientists to establish whether or not it was actually new.
- Euptychia attenboroughi – a rare species of Amazonian butterfly from lowland tropical forests of the upper Amazon basin in Venezuela, Colombia, and Brazil.
- Trigonopterus attenboroughi – a species of flightless weevil in the genus Trigonopterus from Indonesia.
- Electrotettix attenboroughi – a pygmy grasshopper.
- Attenborough's pitcher plant or Nepenthes attenboroughii – a plant endemic to Palawan Island in the Philippines.
- Zaglossus attenboroughi – a long-beaked echidna found in the highland forests of New Guinea.
- Attenborosaurus conybeari – a dinosaur that lived in Europe during the Sinemurian stage of the early Jurassic period.
- Ctenocheloides attenboroughi – a ghost shrimp with pectinate claw fingers from Madagascar.
- Materpiscis attenboroughi – a placoderm fish fossil that was found in the Gogo area of north-west Western Australia.
- Blakea attenboroughii – a spectacular species of tree found only in Ecuador.
In 1997, he narrated the award-winning Wildlife Specials, to mark 40 years of the BBC Natural History Unit, and the following year he completed an epic, 10-part series for the BBC, The Life Of Birds. In 2001 he narrated The Blue Planet, followed by The Life Of Mammals in 2002. Life In The Undergrowth came in 2005, followed by the groundbreaking Planet Earth in 2006, a series five years in the making, the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, and the first to be filmed in high definition. Life In Cold Blood followed in 2008, while Frozen Planet arrived in 2011, and in 2013 he brought the six-part series Africa to our screens.
Continued Work into His 90s
Even as he approached his 90th year, Sir David continued at a prodigious pace, bringing more about the wonders of planet Earth to the masses. In 2016 he returned to the Great Barrier Reef for a three-part series and he told the story of the fossil discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the largest known dinosaur, a new species of titanosaur, in Attenborough And The Giant Dinosaur. Planet Earth II, a series of six one-hour natural history programmes, aired in 2016 and was appointment viewing. The show even won a Bafta for the must-see moment of the year, after tense footage showing a newly hatched iguana narrowly escaping racer snakes had the nation on the edge of their seats.
While most of his peers settled into retirement, he continued to work at an impressive rate through his 90s. His 2018 series Dynasties, looking into the secret lives of animals as they fight for their families, was also a hit, and a sequel appeared in 2022. In 2019, Sir David made his first major series for Netflix, Our Planet, which explored Earth's habitats, biodiversity, and the impact of climate change on all living creatures. Other shows included A Perfect Planet, Life In Colour, The Green Planet, Wild Isles and Prehistoric Planet, as well as a Frozen Planet sequel. Planet Earth III came in 2023, using lightweight drones, high-speed cameras, remotely operated deep-sea submersibles and other new technologies to explore previously unseen landscapes.
Even as he approaches his 100th birthday, he is a regular fixture on television. Most recently he has fronted Wild London, in which he explores the wildlife of his hometown, from urban deer to rooftop peregrines. His programmes have earned him awards from all over the world. In April 2005, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen, in recognition of exceptional distinction in the arts, sciences and other areas. He was knighted in 1985. Over the years he has received numerous honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards, including Fellowship of the Royal Society. Sir David is a trustee of the British Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and president of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.
In 1950 he married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel, who died in 1997, and the couple had a son and a daughter. He has made shows for black and white TV, colour TV, HD and 3D, terrestrial broadcasters and streamers. As he turns 100, Sir David travels less now, but is still a singular figure in British broadcasting and in the public consciousness.
