| Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild | |
|---|---|
| Genre | |
| Directed by | Miles Barton |
| Presented by | David Attenborough |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Alastair Fothergill |
| Producer | Miles Barton |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production companies | BBC, Thirteen, WNET New York Public Media |
| Original release | |
| Release | 16 November (2012-11-16) – 30 November 2012 (2012-11-30) |
Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild is a three-part BBC documentary series chronicling the 60 years career making wildlife programmes ofSir David Attenborough. The first hour-long programme, titled "Life on Camera" was broadcast on Friday 16 November 2012 onBBC Two at 9pm. The second part, "Understanding the Natural World" and third and final part, "Our Fragile Planet" were broadcast on following Fridays, 23 and 30 November 2012.[1]
The series is billed by the BBC as "Over three very personal films, Sir David Attenborough looks back at the unparalleled changes in natural history that he has witnessed during his 60-year career."[1]
The linking scenes for the series were filmed in Borneo, specifically inSabah, Malaysia, in October 2011.[2]
In this episode Attenborough "looks back on the iconic animal encounters which have shaped his career". These include the first natural history film he ever saw, a "fanciful story of penguins presented by eccentric EnglishmanCherry Kearton"; his early work on the black and whiteZoo Quest series, where he had to describe the colour of the animals shown; and recalling his first landmark seriesLife on Earth, and how jet travel enabled him to visit 30 countries for filming for the series in three years. He revisitsBorneo, talks about a night-time encounter with a lion pride, and shows how to catch aKomodo dragon. He also discusses the technological advancements in wildlife film-making over the past 60 years.[3]
In this episode Attenborough explored the incredible scientific breakthroughs within his lifetime that have helped to shape an understanding of the world. He talked of the early interviews he conducted with biologistKonrad Lorenz, who was famous for his discoveries about the behaviour of geese (the "imprinting" of young goslings on the first things they saw on hatching meant Lorenz was able to observe them closely as they regarded him as their parent). He also talked ofStanley Miller's groundbreaking experiment in the 1950s that first demonstrated how the chemical "primordial soup" could be transformed by electricity into the basic building blocks of life.
Attenborough also covered the various series he presented that brought key scientific theories to a mass audience. His first landmark series for the BBC,Life on Earth, first broadcast in the 1970s, covered the story of evolution by following in the footsteps of Attenborough's heroCharles Darwin, and discussing and illustrating Darwin's theory of natural selection. This episode also dealt with theblack smokers, deep sea volcanic vents that were found, unexpectedly, to support abundant life. Also covered were tortoises, lung fish and salamanders, andtiktaalik fossils from Canada. Attenborough talked of being a geology student at Cambridge and how he was interested in the distribution of life on the planet. InThe Living Planet series, he filmed in front of an erupting volcano (narrowly avoiding being hit bylava bombs), and discussed the theory ofcontinental drift - how whole continents are moved around the globe over millions of years - by the action ofplate tectonics. This great scientific mystery was not solved until the 1960s.
Attenborough also explored how animals communicate, looking atwoodpeckers,cicadas,wolves, seabirds onLord Howe Island,vervet monkeys, andlizards in Florida. He discussedAlfred Wallace's seminal bookThe Malay Archipelago and thebirds of paradise pictured within it, and his own 1957Zoo Quest programme that explored the area, and how he returned there in 1996 for more filming. In 1957 his film crew were confronted by tribesmen in the Wagi River area ofPapua New Guinea. Attenborough also discussedbower birds,The Selfish Gene byRichard Dawkins,ants andmeerkats.
Also covered in this episode were molecular genetics, andDNA fingerprinting, which was first developed atLeicester University (where his father was principal in earlier years). Attenborough included excerpts from his seriesThe Life of Birds, including a piece onhedge sparrows, and also exploredJane Goodall's work withchimpanzees and their use of tools to crack nuts, and their hunting ofcolobus monkeys in groups. Attenborough showed the books containing the whole of the decodedhuman genome.[4]
In this episode, Attenborough told the story of the changes in the environment, the pioneering conservationists in whose footsteps he followed, and of the revolution in attitudes towards nature. He discussed what inspired him to become a conservationist, as well as owning up to the wildlife he has eaten. He recalled how early programmes in which he had been involved displayed a very different attitude to conservation: inZoo Quest he travelled the globe collecting wild animals forLondon Zoo. On a tropical beach inMalaysia, he recalled how, in the 1950s, after weeks of monotonous travel rations, he dug upturtle eggs to eat. In 2011 he made recompense by returning to release newly hatched turtles into the wild. He remembers his personal encounters withmountain gorillas,blue whales andgiant tortoises. He documented how blue whales, driven to near-extinction by hunting, were now making a comeback thanks to conservation efforts from pressure groups likeGreenpeace. The plight of other threatened species were also highlighted, including the alarming decline inamphibians,insects,otters andrhinoceroses. The launch ofApollo 8 in 1968 allowed us to think globally and see the threat to the planet with views of the shrinkage to thepolar ice caps becoming visible andcoral reefs dying as a result of climate change. Finally Attenborough queried whether our changing attitudes and our greater knowledge of the world will be enough to save it for future generations.[5]
