“You’re an amateur.”
David Attenborough had just proposed using a more lightweight, flexible camera to produce his new show, Zoo Quest. At that moment, stunned BBC executives could have cancelled the show, effectively smothering his career before it even began.
Fortunately, the station heads relented, and Attenborough went off to create the series that would establish him as the greatest natural history presenter that has ever lived.
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“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”
Education has been a part of Attenborough’s life since birth. Born in 1926, he spent his early life living on the campus of University College, where his father was principal. His oldest brother, Richard, would eventually become an internationally celebrated actor and director, while his younger brother, John, would join Alfa Romeo as an executive.
His quest for knowledge was paired with an obsession for the natural world. Every day, he collected specimens to display in the section of his room dubbed ‘the museum’. Attenborough received encourage to continue this interest by his father’s guests, including esteemed archaeologist Jacquetta Hawkes.
In 1936, when Attenborough was only 10, he attended a lecture by conservationist Grey Owl, who warned of mankind’s destruction of the natural world. It was a speech that would shape his entire life’s work as he revealed the planet like nobody ever had before. “No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”
Attenborough attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and, upon graduation, won a scholarship to Cambridge’s Clare College. Here he obtained a degree in natural sciences, before being drafted into the Royal Navy shortly after the conclusion of World War II.
After two years of national service, and a short foray as an editor of children’s science textbooks, Attenborough applied for a job as the producer of a radio talk show at the BBC. He was rejected, but his CV came across the desk of Mary Adams, the head of the Talks (non-fiction content) department at the newly established BBC television network. Interested in his background, she offered Attenborough a three-month training course.
He accepted, harbouring a particular curiosity in the medium. In fact, he had only ever watched television once in his entire life.
By 1952, Attenborough was a full-time member of staff. He worked as a producer, having been discouraged from appearing on camera by Adams, who thought his teeth were too big. His earliest shows included the quiz Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and a folk music series called Song Hunter.
His first natural history program was Animal Patterns, a three-part series highlighting animals from London Zoo. It was here that Attenborough met Jack Lester, curator of the zoo’s reptile exhibit, and the pair decided to create a show documenting Lester’s international animal-collecting expedition.
First broadcast in 1954, Zoo Quest was presented by Attenborough after Lester became ill. Running for seven series, the show became the most popular wildlife program in Britain, and would set the groundwork for Attenborough’s exceptional career.
In 1957, Attenborough was asked to join the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol. Unwilling to move his family from London, he instead founded the Travel and Exploration Unit, which would allow him to create even more documentaries outside of the Zoo Quest franchise.
Attenborough’s quest for knowledge soon outgrew his position at the BBC, and in the following decade he resigned to commence a postgraduate degree in social anthropology.
This lasted until 1965, when he was asked to return to the network as controller of BBC Two, which had been established the previous year. Attenborough agreed to return, provided he could balance his administrative duties with the production of new documentaries.
Under his direction, BBC Two became a station loved for its diverse and unique programming. He introduced televised snooker, which became an instant hit, broadcast rugby league, and introduced such innovative shows as Monty Python’s Flying Circus and inconic art series Civilisation. Most notably, he lead the network into the age of colour television, which saw BBC Two become the first British channel to broadcast in colour in 1967.
By 1969, Attenborough was made director of programs for both BBC channels. It was the top job at the network, but Richard was dissatisfied. He longed to create his own content once more. In 1973, he retired from the position and became a freelance broadcaster.
In the same year, he released his new series, Eastwards with Attenborough, which documented his travels through Indonesia. The next two years were spent producing a range of shows, while Attenborough focused on his epic concept for a show called Life on Earth.
The BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting in 1976, allowing Life on Earth to enter production. It would become the show that defined Attenborough’s career for decades.
Over the next 30 years, Attenborough would develop The Life Collection, a series of 10 documentaries detailing the many environments of Earth and the creatures that inhabited them. Winning multiple awards, including BAFTA and Peabody Awards, the series set a precedent for natural history productions not just in Britain, but across the entire world.
Today, Attenborough continues to innovate. He has partnered with Sky 3D to create 3D content – the first of which, Flying Monsters 3D, debuted in 2010 – and has recently become involved in Virtual Reality productions, which are touring museums around the world.
Attenborough has been prolific in his work outside of the visual mediums too. He has written 25 books, and narrated the audiobook version of many of them.
He is also a keen environmental advocate, spurred throughout his life by the lecture he attended 80 years ago. “In the past, we didn’t understand the effect of our actions. Unknowingly, we sowed the wind and now, literally, we are reaping the whirlwind. But we no longer have that excuse: now we do recognise the consequences of our behaviour. Now surely, we must act to reform it — individually and collectively, nationally and internationally — or we doom future generations to catastrophe,” he declared at the end of his 2008 documentary, Can We Save Planet Earth?
Attenborough has received 32 honorary degrees from British universities, more than any other person. He has been named a national treasure, though he detests the title, declaring it as a result of sentimentality for the animals and environmental issues he raises awareness of.
In 1985, he was knighted, becoming Sir David Attenborough.
At least 15 newly-discovered species and fossils have been named in his honour.
David Attenborough is currently 90 years old. Does he have any plans to slow down, or retire?
Not a chance!
“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.”