David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS (born 8 May 1926 in London, England) is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the respected face and voice of British natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine "Life" series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all terrestrial life. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life

Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones and other natural specimens. He received encouragement in this pursuit at age seven, when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his "museum". A few years later, one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with prehistoric creatures; some 50 years later, it would be the focus of his programme The Amber Time Machine.

In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; the marriage lasted until her death in 1997. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan.

His son, Dr Robert Attenborough, is a senior lecturer in Bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra.^[2]

First years at the BBC

After leaving the Navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work, however, and in 1950 he applied for a job as a radio talks producer with the BBC. Although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams, head of the Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service. Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television, and he had seen only one programme in his life.^[3] However, he accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course, and in 1952 he joined the BBC full time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big,^[4] he became a producer for the Talks Department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and Song Hunter, a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax.

Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series The Pattern of Animals. The studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo, with the naturalist Sir Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and courtship 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 was Zoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954, which Attenborough presented at short notice, due to Lester being taken ill.

In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol. 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^[5], which allowed him to continue to front the Zoo Quest programmes as well as produce other documentaries, notably the Travellers’ Tales and Adventure series.

BBC administration

From 1969 to 1972 he was BBC Television's Director of Programmes (making him responsible overall for both BBC One and BBC Two), but ultimately turned down an offer of promotion that would have made him Director General of the BBC. In 1972 he resigned his post and returned to programme making.

Major series

Foremost among Attenborough's TV documentary work as writer and presenter is the "Life" series, which begins with the trilogy: Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984) and The Trials of Life (1990). These examine the world's organisms from the viewpoints of taxonomy, ecology and stages of life respectively.

Attenborough has also written and/or presented other shorter productions. One of the first after his return to programme-making was The Tribal Eye (1975), which enabled him to expand on his interest in tribal art. Others include The First Eden (1987), about man's relationship with the natural habitats of the Mediterranean, and Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives (1989), which demonstrated Attenborough's passion for discovering fossils. In 2000, State of the Planet examined the environmental crisis that threatens the ecology of the Earth. The naturalist also narrated two other significant series: The Blue Planet (2001) and Planet Earth (2006). The latter is the first natural history series to be made entirely in high-definition.

In May–June 2006, the BBC broadcast a major two-part environmental documentary as part of its "Climate Chaos" season of programmes on global warming. In Are We Changing Planet Earth? and Can We Save Planet Earth?, Attenborough investigated the subject and put forward some potential solutions. He returned to the locations of some of his past productions and discovered the effect that climate change has had on them. These two programmes were released on DVD under the title The Truth About Climate Change on 23 June 2008.^{citation needed}

In 2007, Attenborough presented "Sharing Planet Earth", the first programme in a series of documentaries entitled Saving Planet Earth. Again he used footage from his previous series to illustrate the impact that mankind has had on the planet. "Sharing Planet Earth" was broadcast on 24 June 2007.^[6]

Life in Cold Blood is Attenborough's last major series. In an interview to promote it, he stated:

However, in subsequent interviews with Radio Times, Parkinson and on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, he said that he did not intend to retire completely and would probably continue to make occasional one-off programmes. In 2008, he stated that he is planning a series about Charles Darwin and evolution.^[7]

Although Attenborough's documentaries have attained immense popularity in the United States, several have never been made available on DVD in NTSC format; most notably, the ones that cast doubt upon Conservative religious or political positions. These include:

Other work

In 1975, the naturalist presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled Fabulous Animals.^[8] This represented a diversion from Attenborough's usual fare, as it dealt with the creatures of myths and legends, such as the griffin and kraken. It was a studio-based production, with the presenter describing his subjects with the aid of large, ornately illustrated books.

From 1983, Attenborough worked on two environmentally-themed musicals with the WWF and writers Peter Rose and Anne Conlon. Yanomamo was the first, about the Amazon rainforest, and the second, Ocean World, premiered at the Royal Festival Hall in 1991. They were both narrated by Attenborough on their national tour, and recorded on to audio cassette. Ocean World was also filmed for Channel 4 and later released.

Between 1977 and 2005, Attenborough also narrated over 250 editions of the half-hour BBC One nature series Wildlife on One^[9] (BBC Two repeats were retitled Wildlife on Two). Though his role was mainly to narrate other people's films, he did on rare occasions appear in front of the camera.

Achievements, awards and recognition

On 13 July 2006, Attenborough, along with his brother Richard, were awarded the titles of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University."^[10] David Attenborough was previously awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the university in 1970.^[11]

In 1993, after discovering that the Mesozoic reptile Plesiosaurus conybeari had not, in fact, been a true plesiosaur, the paleontologist Robert Bakker renamed the species Attenborosaurus conybeari in Attenborough's honour.^[12]

In June 2004, Attenborough and Sir Peter Scott were jointly profiled in the second of a three-part BBC Two series, The Way We Went Wild, about television wildlife presenters. Part three also featured Attenborough extensively. The next month, another BBC Two programme, Attenborough the Controller, recalled his time as Director of Programmes for BBC Two.

In November 2005, London's Natural History Museum announced a fundraising campaign to build a communications centre in Attenborough's honour. The museum intends to open the David Attenborough Studio in 2008.^[13]

An opinion poll of 4,900 Britons conducted by Reader's Digest in 2006 showed Attenborough to be the most trusted celebrity in Britain.^[14] In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, he was voted tenth in the list of "Heroes of our time".^[15]

It is often suggested that David Attenborough's 50-year career at the BBC making natural history documentaries and travelling extensively throughout the world has probably made him the most travelled person on Earth ever.^[16]

His contribution to broadcasting was recognised by the 60-minute documentary Life on Air, transmitted in 2002 to tie in with the publication of Attenborough's similarly titled autobiography. For the programme, the naturalist was interviewed at his home by his friend Michael Palin (someone who is almost as well-travelled). Attenborough's reminiscences are interspersed with memorable clips from his series, with contributions from his brother Richard as well as professional colleagues. Life on Air is available on DVD as part of Attenborough in Paradise and Other Personal Voyages.

In May 2008, the oldest known prehistoric mother — a fossilised fish giving live birth, was given the name Materpiscis attenboroughi. It honoured David Attenborough's role in highlighting the scientific importance of the ancient fossilised Gogo Reef, Western Australia, in his 1979 Life on Earth TV series.^[17]

Favourite Attenborough moments

In April 2006, to celebrate Attenborough's 80th birthday, the public were asked to vote on their favourite of his television moments, out of twenty candidates. The results were announced on UKTV on 7 May. Each is given with its series and advocate:

Parodies and artistic portrayals

Attenborough's accent and hushed, excited delivery have been the subject of frequent parodies by comedians, most notably Spike Milligan, Marty Feldman, The Goodies and South Park. Especially apt for spoofing is Attenborough's pronunciation of the word "here" when using it to introduce a sentence, as in, "He-eah, in the rain forest of the Amazon Basin..."

Attenborough is portrayed by Michael Palin in the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, where he searches the African jungle for the legendary Walking Tree of Dahomey (Quercus Nicholas Parsonus), sweating excessively and accompanied by native guides wearing saxophones.

In an episode of Are You Being Served?, "Anything You Can Do!", Mrs. Slocombe refers him by name, by mistake, she says Richard Attenborough.

Attenborough also appears as a character in David Ives' play Time Flies, a comedy focusing on a romance between two mayflies.

In the documentary In the Wild: Lemurs with John Cleese, while trekking through the forest in Madagascar, Cleese points as if to have seen an exotic creature and exclaims, "It's David Attenborough!"

On an episode of The Ricky Gervais Show, Karl Pilkington speculates that David Attenborough is likely careful not to kill any insect pests, imitating Attenborough's inevitable recognition that "that's where I make me money."

In the late 1980s, an Australian weekly programme called The Comedy Company featured a segment with "David Rabbitborough" played by Ian McFadyen. He got around in a safari suit touring the Melbourne suburbs in the same format as Attenborough, but his specimens were human beings and garden objects, like gnomes, garden hoses and water caps.

In the 1980s, a TV advertisement for Guinness featured an Attenborough impersonator investigating the odd "species" of humans who prefer bland lager to flavoursome stout.

In a Finnish TV commercial, Attenborough is impersonated, looking at fireflies - until the lights are turned on by a studio employee going to a soft drink vending machine.

Portuguese comedian Herman José played a caricature of Attenborough (David Vaitenborough, roughly translated as David Go-away) in the "Herman Geographycal Society" sketches in his TV Show Herman Enciclopédia (1997).

Another group of TV advertisements produced in 2008, this time for GEICO automobile insurance, has an Attenborough impersonator observing the Geico gecko making his sales pitch in various settings.

Attenborough's voice-over is included in the Japanese band Coaltar of the Deepers' song "Cell".

Views and advocacy

Environmental causes

From the beginning, Attenborough's major series have included some content regarding the impact of human society on the natural world. The last episode of The Living Planet, for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of the environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, his programmes have been criticised for not making their environmental message more explicit. Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans.^[20]

In the last few years, Attenborough has become increasingly outspoken in support of environmental causes. In 2005 and 2006 he backed a BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats.^[21] He gave public support to WWF's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres of Borneo's rainforest designated a protected area.^[22] He also serves as a vice-president of BTCV, Fauna and Flora International, president of Butterfly Conservation and president of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. In 2003 he launched an appeal to create a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons OBE, the producer of Life on Earth and a personal friend, who had died the previous year. Attenborough also launched ARKive in May 2003,^[23] a global project which had been instigated by Christopher Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library, an online Noah's Ark. He later became Patron of the World Land Trust, and an active supporter.

Attenborough has repeatedly said that he considers human overpopulation to be the root cause of many environmental problems. Both his series The Life of Mammals and the accompanying book end with a plea for humans to curb population growth so that other species will not be crowded out.

He has recently written and spoken publicly about the fact that he now believes global warming is definitely real, and caused by humans.^[24] At the climax of the aforementioned "Climate Chaos" documentaries, the naturalist gives this summing up of his findings:

In a 2005 interview with BBC Wildlife magazine, Attenborough said he considered George W. Bush to be the era's top "environmental villain". In 2007, he further elaborated on the USA's consumption of energy in relation to its population. When asked if he thought America to be "the villain of the piece", he responded:

Other causes

Attenborough is also an honorary member of BSES Expeditions, a youth development charity that operates challenging scientific research expeditions to remote wilderness environments.

Religion and creationism

In a December 2005 interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio Five Live, Attenborough stated that he considers himself an agnostic.^[26] 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:

He has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life, and that "as far as I'm concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world."

In a BBC Four interview with Mark Lawson, Attenborough was asked if he at any time had any religious faith. He replied simply, "No."

In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by leading clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

Television work

Writer and presenter (documentary series)

Writer and presenter (single documentaries)

Narrator (documentary series)

Narrator (single documentaries)

Producer

Attenborough also acted as producer for many programs in which he had other roles, particularly those produced by the BBC's Travel and Exploration Unit in the 1950s and 1960s. These programs have already been listed where Attenborough had a narrating or presenting role.

Other television and film work

Books

Bibliography

Introductions

Attenborough has written the introduction or foreword for a number of books, including:

Audio recordings

In addition, Attenborough has recorded some of his own works in audiobook form, including Life on Earth, Zoo Quest for a Dragon and his autobiography Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster.

Styles and Honours

References

^ History of College House
^ Dr Robert Attenborough - School of Archaeology & Anthropology - ANU
^ Attenborough, David (2002). Life on Air. BBC Books. ISBN 0-563-53461-3. pp. 10-11.
^ Life on Air, p.13.
^ Life on Air, pp.60-61.
^ ^a ^b Radio Times 23–29 June 2007
^ ^a ^b Radio Times 26 Jan–1 Feb 2008: "The Last Word", interview with Jeremy Paxman
^ Fortean Times episode guide to Fabulous Animals
^ Wildlife on One at the Internet Movie Database
^ Honorary Degrees and Distinguished Honorary Fellowships Announced by University of Leicester, University of Leicester press release, 9 June 2006; India News report
^ University of Leicester Alumni Relations Sir David Attenborough (Hon DLitt 1970) gave the Alumni Association Lecture in 2003
^ Plesiosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide
^ The David Attenborough Studio Campaign
^ Simon Hoggart, 'In David we trust ... but not Peter,' The Guardian, 28 January 2006
^ New Statesman
^ Brian Leith, 2002. Life on Air (Press Release); Andrew Denton, 2003 "Interview with David Attenborough" on Enough Rope, ABC TV.
^ C. Barry, Oldest Live-Birth Fossil Found; Fish Had Umbilical Cord, National Geographic News, [1]
^ Press release, University of Aberdeen
^ Press release, University of Exeter
^ James Fair, "Small Things Bright and Beautiful", BBC Wildlife Magazine, November 2005, pp. 25-26.
^ 'Personal plea by David Attenborough,', www.savethealbatross.net, 27 January 2006
^ 'Sir David Attenborough: Heart of Borneo is a global heritage,', WWF-UK press release.
^ Arkive sets sail on the web, The Guardian, 20 May 2003
^ Climate change is the major challenge facing the world David Attenborough, The Independent, 24 May 2006
^ Press release, Blood Pressure Association web site, May 13, 2005
^ Interview with Simon Mayo, BBC Radio Five Live, 2 December 2005
^ David Attenborough, 2003. "Wild, wild life." Sydney Morning Herald, March 25. Attenborough has also told this story in numerous other interviews.

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