Attenborough spent his childhood collectingfossils, stones and natural specimens.[11] He received encouragement when a youngJacquetta Hawkes admired his collection.[12] He spent much time in the grounds of the university. Aged around 11, he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply ofnewts, which he offered through his father to supply for3d each. The source, which he did not reveal at the time, was a pond adjacent to the department.[13] A year later, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece ofamber containing prehistoric creatures; some 60 years later, it would be the focus of "The Amber Time Machine", an episode of his seriesNatural World.[14]
In 1936 Attenborough and his brother Richard attended a lecture byGrey Owl (Archibald Belaney) atDe Montfort Hall inLeicester, and were influenced by his advocacy of conservation. According to Richard, David was "bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of Dave's own credo to this day."[15] In 1999 Richard directed abiographical film of Belaney entitledGrey Owl.[16]
After leaving the navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work and in 1950 applied for a job as a radio talk producer with theBBC.[19] Although he was rejected for this job, hiscurriculum vitae later attracted the interest ofMary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service.[20] Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television and had seen only one programme in his life.[21]
He accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course. In 1952 he joined the BBC full-time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big,[19] he became a producer for the Talks department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz showAnimal, Vegetable, Mineral? andSong Hunter, a series aboutfolk music presented byAlan Lomax.[19]
Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part seriesAnimal Patterns. The studio-bound programme featured animals fromLondon Zoo, with the naturalistJulian Huxley discussing their use ofcamouflage,aposematism andcourtship displays. Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the curator of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to make a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result wasZoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954, where Attenborough became the presenter at short notice due to Lester being taken ill.[22]
In 1957 theBBC Natural History Unit was formally established inBristol. Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled. Instead, he formed his own department, the Travel and Exploration Unit,[23] which allowed him to continue to frontZoo Quest as well as produce other documentaries, notably theTravellers' Tales andAdventure series.[23] In the early 1960s Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to study for a postgraduate degree insocial anthropology at theLondon School of Economics, interweaving his study with further filming.[24] However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as controller ofBBC Two before he could finish the degree.[25]
BBC administration
Attenborough became Controller of BBC Two in March 1965, succeedingMichael Peacock.[26] He had a clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis. Later the same year he filmed elephants inTanzania and in 1969 made a three-part series on the cultural history of the Indonesian island ofBali. For the 1971 filmA Blank on the Map, he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley inNew Guinea to seek out alost tribe.[27]
BBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned includedMan Alive,Call My Bluff,Chronicle,The Old Grey Whistle Test,Monty Python's Flying Circus andThe Money Programme.[28] With the advent ofcolour television, Attenborough broughtsnooker to the BBC to show the benefits of the format, as the sport uses coloured balls.[29] The show –Pot Black – was later credited with the boom of the sport into the 1980s.[30]
One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on thehistory of Western art, to show off the quality of the newUHF colour television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969,Civilisation, presented bySir Kenneth Clark, became the blueprint for landmarkauthored documentaries, which were informally known as "sledgehammer" projects.[31][32] Others followed, includingJacob Bronowski'sThe Ascent of Man (also commissioned by Attenborough) andAlistair Cooke'sAmerica: A Personal History of the United States. Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea withChristopher Parsons, a producer at the Natural History Unit, who came up with the titleLife on Earth and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post.[33]
While in charge of BBC Two, Attenborough turned downTerry Wogan's job application to be a presenter on the channel, stating that there were not any suitable vacancies. The channel already had an Irish announcer, with Attenborough reflecting in 2016: "To have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC Two would have looked ridiculous. This is no comment whatsoever on Terry Wogan's talents."[34] Attenborough has also acknowledged that he sanctioned thewiping of television output during this period to cut costs, includinga series byAlan Bennett, which he later regretted.[35]
In 1969 Attenborough was promoted to director of programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels.[36] His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings and firing staff, were now far removed from the business of filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position ofDirector-General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job. Early the following year, he left his post to return to full-time programme-making, leaving him free to write and present the planned natural history epic.[11]
After his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and started work on his next project, a trip to Indonesia with a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted in the 1973 seriesEastwards with Attenborough, which was similar in tone to the earlierZoo Quest; the main difference was the introduction of colour. Attenborough stated that he wanted to work in Asia, because previous nature documentaries had mostly focused on Africa.[37] That year, Attenborough was invited to deliver theRoyal Institution Christmas Lecture onThe Language of Animals.[38] After his work onEastwards with Attenborough, he began to work on the scripts forLife on Earth.[39]
Due to the scale of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding, he worked on a number of other television projects. He presented a series ontribal art (The Tribal Eye, 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery (The Explorers, 1975).[39] He presented a BBC children's series aboutcryptozoology entitledFabulous Animals (1975), which featured mythical creatures such asmermaids andunicorns.[40] Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production deal withTurner Broadcasting andLife on Earth moved into production in 1976.[41] In 1979 he visited the People's Republic of China and reported to the West for the first time about the Chineseone-child policy.[42]
Beginning withLife on Earth in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of scientists, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes.[43]
Innovation was another factor inLife on Earth's success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were up till then unfilmed. International air travel enabled the series to be devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one sequence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he restricted his time on camera to give more time to his subjects.[44]
Five years after the success ofLife on Earth, the BBC releasedThe Living Planet.[45] This time, Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology, the adaptations of living things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990The Trials of Life completed the originalLife trilogy, looking atanimal behaviour through the different stages of life.[46]
In the 1990s Attenborough continued to use the "Life" title for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993 he presentedLife in the Freezer, the first television series to survey the natural history ofAntarctica. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result wasThe Private Life of Plants (1995), which showed plants as dynamic organisms by usingtime-lapse photography to speed up their growth, and went on to earn aPeabody Award.[47]
Prompted by an enthusiasticornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to birds. As he was neither abirdwatcher nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to makeThe Life of Birds (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The documentary series won a second Peabody Award the following year.[48] The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. ForThe Life of Mammals (2002),low-light andinfrared cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorabletwo shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, ablue whale and agrizzly bear. Advances inmacro photography made it possible to capture the natural behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005,Life in the Undergrowth introduced audiences to the world ofinvertebrates.[49]
At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles andamphibians were missing. WhenLife in Cold Blood was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia calledLife on Land. He commented: "The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said 'Don't be ridiculous!' These programmes tell a particular story and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did, but I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years' time, it will still have something to say about the world we live in."[50]
However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that hisFirst Life – dealing with evolutionary history beforeLife on Earth – should be included within the "Life" series. In the documentaryAttenborough's Journey, he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set."[51]
Alongside theLife series, Attenborough continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of theMediterranean Basin,The First Eden, in 1987. Two years later, he demonstrated his passion for fossils inLost Worlds, Vanished Lives.[52] In 1990, he worked on the BBC'sPrisoners of Conscience series where he highlighted the case of the Sudanese poetMahjoub Sharif.[53]
Attenborough is very knowledgeable about music. He appeared in 14 of the 127 episodes ofFace the Music, from 1975 to 1983.[54]
Attenborough narrated every episode ofWildlife on One, aBBC One wildlife series that ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, while the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers.[55] He has narrated over 50 episodes ofNatural World, BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. Its forerunner,The World About Us, was created by Attenborough in 1969, as a vehicle for colour television.[56] In 1997, he narrated theBBC Wildlife Specials, each focusing on a charismatic species and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary.[57]
As a writer and narrator, Attenborough continued to collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium.Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked onThe Trials of Life andLife in the Freezer, was makingThe Blue Planet (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive series onmarine life.[58] He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to a camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. The same team reunited forPlanet Earth (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot inhigh definition.[59]
In 2009 Attenborough co-wrote and narratedLife, a ten-part series focussing on extraordinary animal behaviour,[60] and narratedNature's Great Events, which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles.[61] In January 2009 the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. EntitledDavid Attenborough's Life Stories, they were broadcast onRadio 4 on Friday nights.[62]
In 2011 Fothergill gave Attenborough a more prominent role inFrozen Planet, a major series on the natural history of thepolar regions; Attenborough appeared on screen and authored the final episode, in addition to performingvoiceover duties. Attenborough introduced and narrated the Unit's first4K production,Life Story. ForPlanet Earth II (2016), Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter, with the maintheme music composed byHans Zimmer.[63][64]
In October 2014 the corporation announced a trio of new one-off Attenborough documentaries as part of a raft of new natural history programmes. "Attenborough's Paradise Birds" and "Attenborough's Big Birds" was shown on BBC Two and "Waking Giants", which follows the discovery of giant dinosaur bones in South America, aired on BBC One.[65] The BBC also commissionedAtlantic Productions to make a three-part, Attenborough-fronted seriesGreat Barrier Reef in 2015. The series marked the 10th project for Attenborough and Atlantic and saw him returning to a location he first filmed at in 1957.[66][67]
By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. InState of the Planet (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists andconservationists to assess the impact of human activities on the natural world. He later turned to the issues ofglobal warming (The Truth about Climate Change, 2006) and human population growth (How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?, 2009). He contributed a programme which highlighted the plight ofendangered species to the BBC'sSaving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.[81][82]
In 2019 Attenborough narratedOur Planet, an eight-part documentary series, forNetflix.[83] In contrast to much of his prior work for the BBC, this series emphasised the destructive role of human activities throughout the series. Before, he would often note concerns in a final section of the work.[84] He also narratedWild Karnataka, a documentary about theKarnataka forest area.[85] In 2019 Attenborough's one-off film documentary about climate change for BBC One calledClimate Change – The Facts was aired; the tone of the documentary was significantly graver than his previous work for the BBC.[86][87] This was followed byExtinction: The Facts, which is partly based on the 2019IPBESreport on thedecline of biodiversity.[88][89]
Attenborough was a key figure in the build-up to the2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) and gave a speech at the opening ceremony.[95] In it he stated that humans were "the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth" and spoke of his optimism for the future, finishing by saying "In my lifetime I've witnessed a terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery."[96]
Attenborough in 2003 at the launch ofARKive – a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery"
Attenborough's programmes have often included references to theimpact of human society on the natural world. The last episode ofThe Living Planet, for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence to environmental messages. In 2018 while promotingDynasties, he said that repeated messages on threats to wildlife in programming could be a "turn-off" to viewers.[99]
In 2003 Attenborough launched an appeal on behalf of theWorld Land Trust to create arainforest reserve inEcuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the producer ofLife on Earth and a personal friend, who had died the previous year.[116] The same year, he helped to launchARKive,[117] a global project instigated by Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive is an initiative ofWildscreen, of which Attenborough is a patron.[118] He later became patron of the World Land Trust. In 2020, he backed a Fauna and Flora International campaign calling for a global moratorium ondeep sea mining for its impact on marine life.[119]
Attenborough and US PresidentBarack Obama discuss the natural world at theWhite House (2015).
Attenborough was initially sceptical about the human influence onclimate change and stated that a 2004 lecture finally convinced him humans were responsible. He remained silent on the issue until 2006.[125][126] Attenborough attended and spoke atCOP26 as the "People's Advocate" for the event and urged world leaders to act to reduce emissions.[127][128] He supportedGlyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for awind turbine in anArea of Outstanding Natural Beauty and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal.[129] In his 2020 documentary filmDavid Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, Attenborough advocates for people to adopt a vegetarian diet or to reduce meat consumption to savewildlife, noting that "the planet can't support billions of meat-eaters."[130]
According to Attenborough, improvingwomen's rights around the world is an effective way "to limit our birth rate".[143] He said that "anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist."[143]
Views on evolution and creationism
Attenborough considers himself an agnostic.[144] When asked whether his observation of the natural world has given him faith in a creator, he generally responds with some version of this story, making reference to the parasitic wormOnchocerca volvulus:
My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instancehummingbirds, ororchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], "Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy."[145]
He has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly showsevolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life and that "as far as [he's] concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world". In aBBC Four interview withMark Lawson, he was asked if he at any time had any religious faith. He replied simply, "no".[146] He said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God".[147]
In 2002 Attenborough joined an effort by leadingclerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion ofcreationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as theEmmanuel Schools Foundation.[148] In 2009 he stated that theBook of Genesis, by saying that the world was there for people to control, had taught generations that they can "dominate" the environment and that this has resulted in the devastation of vast areas of it. He further explained to the science journalNature, "That's whyDarwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to the devastation of so much, and we are in the situation that we are in".[149]
Also in early 2009, the BBC broadcast an Attenborough one-hour special,Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life. In reference to the programme, Attenborough stated that "People write to me that evolution is only a theory. Well, it is not a theory. Evolution is as solid a historical fact as you could conceive. Evidence from every quarter. What is a theory is whether natural selection is the mechanism and the only mechanism. That is a theory. But the historical reality that dinosaurs led to birds and mammals produced whales, that's not theory."[150] He strongly opposes creationism and its offshoot "intelligent design", saying that the results of a survey that found a quarter of science teachers in state schools believe that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in science lessons was "really terrible".[150]
In March 2009 Attenborough appeared onFriday Night with Jonathan Ross. Attenborough stated that he felt evolution did not rule out the existence of a God and accepted the title of agnostic, saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God".[151]
Attenborough has joined the evolutionary biologistRichard Dawkins and other top scientists in signing a campaign statement co-ordinated by theBritish Humanist Association (BHA). The statement calls for "creationism to be banned from the school science curriculum and for evolution to be taught more widely in schools".[152]
BBC and public service broadcasting
Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC,public service broadcasting and thetelevision licence. He has said that public service broadcasting "is one of the things that distinguishes this country and makes me want to live here",[153] and believes that it is not reducible to individual programmes, but "can only effectively operate as a network [...] that measures its success not only by its audience size but by the range of its schedule".[154]
... the BBC per minute in almost every category is as cheap as you can find anywhere in the world and produces the best quality. [...] The BBC has gone through swingeing staff cuts. It has been cut to the bone, if you divert licence fee money elsewhere, you cut quality and services. [...] There is a lot of people who want to see the BBC weakened. They talk of this terrible tax of the licence fee. Yet it is the best bargain that is going. Four radio channels and god knows how many TV channels. It is piffling.[153]
Attenborough expressed the view that there had often been people wanting to remove the BBC, adding "there's always been trouble about the licence and if you dropped your guard you could bet our bottom dollar there'd be plenty of people who'd want to take it away. The licence fee is the basis on which the BBC is based and if you destroy it, broadcasting... becomes a wasteland."[155] He expressed regret at some of the changes made to the BBC in the 1990s by its director-general,John Birt, who introduced an internal market at the corporation, slimmed and closed some departments and outsourced much of the corporation's output to private production companies.[156]
Although he said Birt's policies had poor results, Attenborough also acknowledged "the BBC had to change."[156][157] In 2008, he criticised the BBC's television schedules, positing that the two senior networks,BBC One andBBC Two – which Attenborough stated were "first set up as a partnership" – now "schedule simultaneously programmes of identical character, thereby contradicting the very reason that the BBC was given a second network."[154]
Politics
In 1998 Attenborough described himself as "a standard, boring left-wing liberal" and expressed the view that themarket economy was "misery".[156] In 2013 Attenborough joined the rock guitaristsBrian May andSlash in opposing theBritish government's policy on thecull of badgers in the UK by participating in a song dedicated to badgers.[158] Attenborough was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter toThe Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the 2014referendum on that issue.[159] Prior to the2015 general election, Attenborough was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of theGreen Party'sCaroline Lucas.[160]
In an interview in 2020 Attenborough criticised excesscapitalism as a driver of ecological imbalance, stating, "the excesses the capitalist system has brought us, have got to be curbed somehow", and that "greed does not actually lead to joy", although he added "That doesn't mean to say that capitalism is dead".[161] He also lamented the lack ofinternational cooperation on climate change: "There should be no dominant nation on this planet."[162] In 2021, Attenborough told the leaders of the47th G7 summit that "tackling climate change was now as much a political challenge as it was a scientific or technological one" and urged for more action.[163] Attenborough also stated that "(we) are on the verge of destabilising the entire planet."[164]
In 2023 Attenborough was described by theNew Statesman as a figure "invaluable to green diplomacy" in the UK, placing him twenty-third in their list of Britain's most powerful left-wing figures, above many elected politicians.[165]
Personal life
Family
In 1950 Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. Jane died in 1997.
Attenborough isagnostic.[168][169] His parents did not instill any religious beliefs during his childhood, Attenborough also stating "It never really occurred to me to believe in God." He has also stated he "lacks confidence" to identify asatheist and does not think thetheory of evolution necessarily discludes the existence of a deity.[170] He has received critical remarks fromcreationists for not crediting God in his documentaries.[170]
In 2002, he was one of various scientists along with clergy to publically oppose including creationism in the curriculums of government-funded, privately sponsoredindependent schools like theEmmanuel Schools Foundation.[170]
Health
Attenborough had apacemaker fitted in June 2013, as well as a doubleknee replacement in 2015.[171] In September 2013 he commented: "If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not. I'm swanning round the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune."[172]
Achievements, awards and recognition
He roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating. He talks like he's revealing secrets and draws you in using such simple language that he's instantly understood, making his sense of wonder infectious. And when he goes on site to share the screen with one of his subjects, it's magical.
—NPR review ofAttenborough's Journey' Salutes The Broadcaster With A Passion For Nature.[2]
Attenborough's contribution to broadcasting and wildlife film-making has brought him international recognition. He has been called "the great communicator, the peerless educator"[173] and "the greatest broadcaster of our time."[150] His programmes are often cited as an example of what public service broadcasting should be, even by critics of the BBC, and have influenced a generation of wildlife film-makers.[174]
In 2006, the two eldest Attenborough brothers returned to their home city to receive the title of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester, "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University."[181] David Attenborough was previously awarded an honoraryDoctor of Letters degree by the university in 1970 and was made an honoraryFreeman of the City of Leicester in 1990. In 2013 he was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Bristol.[182] In 2010, he was awarded Honorary Doctorates fromNelson Mandela Metropolitan University andNottingham Trent University.[183][184]
Attenborough has been featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes.Life on Air (2002) examined the legacy of his work andAttenborough the Controller (2002) focused on his time in charge of BBC Two. He was also featured prominently inThe Way We Went Wild (2004), a series about natural history television presenters, and100 Years of Wildlife Films (2007), a programme marking the centenary of the nature documentary. In 2006, British television viewers were asked to vote for theirFavourite Attenborough Moments for a UKTV poll to coincide with the broadcaster's 80th birthday. The winning clip showed Attenborough observing themimicry skills of thesuperb lyrebird.[191]
In 2012 Attenborough was among the British cultural icons selected by artist SirPeter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork –the Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life.[196] The same year, Attenborough featured in the BBC Radio 4 seriesThe New Elizabethans to mark theDiamond Jubilee ofQueen Elizabeth II. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named him among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands".[197]
A British polar research ship was namedRRSSir David Attenborough in his honour. While an internet poll suggesting the name of the ship had the most votes forBoaty McBoatface, the science ministerJo Johnson said there were "more suitable names"; the official name was eventually picked up from one of the other more favoured choices. However, one of its research sub-sea vehicles was named "Boaty" in recognition of the public vote.[198]
Attenborough is also recognised byGuinness World Records as having the longest career as a natural historian and presenter in television.[199]
In 1993, after discovering that theMesozoic reptilePlesiosaurus conybeari did not belong to the genusPlesiosaurus, the palaeontologistRobert Bakker renamed the speciesAttenborosaurus conybeari.[215] A fossilised armoured fish discovered in Western Australia in 2008 was namedMaterpiscis attenboroughi, after Attenborough had filmed at the site and highlighted its scientific importance inLife on Earth. TheMaterpiscis fossil is believed to be the earliest organism capable of internal fertilisation.[216]
In 2015 a species of tree fromGabon (in theAnnonaceae family)SirdavidiaCouvreur & Sauquet was named with his title.[217]
In 2018 a new species ofphytoplankton,Syracosphaera azureaplaneta, was named to honourThe Blue Planet, the television documentary presented by Attenborough, and to recognise his contribution to promoting understanding of the oceanic environment.[224] The same year, Attenborough was also commemorated in the name of the scarab beetleSylvicanthon attenboroughi.[225]
In 2020Nothobranchius attenboroughi, a brightly coloured seasonal fish species, was described in his honour. It is endemic to Tanzania and it is known from ephemeral pools and marshes associated with theGrumeti River and other small systems draining intoLake Victoria at the east side of the lake, largely within the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. The small seasonal fish inhabit ephemeral habitats in freshwater wetlands and have extreme life-history adaptations, having an annual life cycle, a key adaptation to reproduce in the seasonally arid savannah biome and allowing the eggs to survive the periodic drying up of the seasonal natural habitats.[226]
Attenborough in 2018 receiving an honorary award for his sustainability work fromBergen Business Council and Fana SparebankAttenborough receiving theLandscape Institute Medal for Lifetime Achievement and becoming an Honorary Fellow of the Landscape Institute in 2019
Attenborough's television credits span eight decades. His association with natural history programmes dates back toThe Pattern of Animals andZoo Quest in the early 1950s. His most influential work, 1979'sLife on Earth, launched a strand of nine authored documentaries with the BBC Natural History Unit which shared theLife strand name and spanned 30 years.[280] He narrated the long-running BBC seriesWildlife on One. In his later career, he provided narration for several high-profile BBC wildlife documentaries, among themThe Blue Planet andPlanet Earth. He became a pioneer in the 3D documentary format withFlying Monsters in 2010,[280] and again in his 2025 cinema release of "Ocean With David Attenborough".
Bibliography
David Attenborough's work as an author has strong parallels with his broadcasting career. In the 1950s and 1960s, his published work included accounts of his animal collecting expeditions around the world, which became theZoo Quest series. He wrote an accompanying volume to each of his nineLife documentaries, along with books on tribal art andbirds of paradise. His autobiography,Life on Air, was published in 2002, revised in 2009 and is one of a number of his works which is available as a self-narratedaudiobook. Attenborough has contributed forewords and introductions to many other works, notably those accompanyingPlanet Earth,Frozen Planet,Africa and other BBC series he has narrated.[281][282]
^David Attenborough, 2003. "Wild, wild lifeArchived 11 December 2003 at theWayback Machine."The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 March. Attenborough has also told this story in numerous other interviews.
^Nagy, B., Watters, B.R., van der Merwe, P.D.W., Cotterill, F.P.D. & Bellstedt, D.U. (2020). Review of theNothobranchius ugandensis species group from the inland plateau of eastern Africa with descriptions of six new species (Teleostei: Nothobranchiidae).Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 30(1): 21–73.doi:10.23788/IEF-1129ResearchGate:340922876
^Programme, UN Environment (26 November 2020)."Lifetime Achievement".Champions of the Earth.Archived from the original on 22 July 2022. Retrieved22 July 2022.
