There was a collective sigh of relief when naturalist Sir David Attenborough, now 87, recovered from the surgery that had forced him to call off his Australian tour. Over the years, he has captivated imaginations – his voice becoming synonymous with adventure. He has been labelled a national treasure in the UK and, while he has never been fond of the accolade, it is hard to find a better phrase to describe a man whose illustrious career has spanned generations.
Attenborough is the godfather of natural history television, introducing the world to his furry, feathered and sometimes ferocious friends. Most television personalities may have sought retirement after receiving a knighthood and having several different species named after them, but not Attenborough. As he once said: “I wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored.”
Lifelong passion
Born in London in 1926, he acquired a fascination for fossils as a boy. It acted as the catalyst for his curiosity about nature. His inquisitive disposition would lead him to Cambridge University, where he studied natural science, specialising in zoology and geology. Although he excelled in academia, he preferred to be out in the field, bringing facts to life. This led him to apply for a training course at the BBC, where he joined the factual department and made his first natural history series, The Pattern of Animals, in 1953.
The passion and flair he showed in front of the camera made him the obvious choice to fill the shoes of Jack Lester, the original host of Zoo Quest (1954-63), after he fell ill while filming. Attenborough and his team went in search of exotic animals in parts of the world seldom seen. The series propelled his career forward and helped establish him as the face of natural history television. However, in an interview last year with Robin McKie of The Observer he expressed regret for the part he played in the series. “50 years ago, I used to go along, chase a giant anteater and pull it by the tail so we could film it. I am sorry about that sort of thing. But those were different days.”
Behind the lens
Attenborough’s evolution in thinking transferred to his filmmaking and he played a huge part in shaping mankind’s relationship with its fellow creatures. However, in his opinion the shift in man’s relationship with nature was achieved not by his dulcet tones on screen, but through scientific revolutionaries: people like Francis Crick and Jim Watson through their discovery of the structure of DNA, and Richard Dawkins by picking up Darwin’s evolutionary mantle. Nevertheless, he must have made a big impression on the boy who would go on to popularise the gene-centred view of evolution; Dawkins was just 16 years old when he first met Attenborough. The pair spent the day trampling through ponds and ditches, hunting for tadpoles, and sharing their passion for the natural world.
During his career, Attenborough has filmed in every continent and captured the most enthralling encounters with nature. He visited Dian Fossey’s sanctuary in Rwanda, where he was groomed by gorillas in a spectacular scene for Life on Earth (1979); experienced zero gravity in The Living Planet (1984); delivered his lines as vast swarms of crabs clambered over him on Christmas Island in The Trials of Life (1990); and was spat at by a cobra in Life in Cold Blood (2008).
Family sanctuary
With his vast number of documentary credits and the days spent flitting around the globe to film them, Attenborough seems to live a nomadic existence, but the great traveller does have a place to call home. Back in Richmond, his house has contained animals retrieved during his early adventures. Parrots, monkeys, pythons and bush babies are just some of the animals that lived there, cared for by his wife Jane, and studied in wonder by their two children, Robert and Susan.
It was Jane who made Attenborough’s career possible, looking after the children and always there to greet him when he returned from distant lands. In 1997, while filming in New Zealand, he received a phone call explaining Jane had suffered a brain haemorrhage. He returned to Britain and was by her side when she died. He rarely talks about her, but the home is full of the love the two shared. He said: “There isn’t a square inch of the house that isn’t bound up with Jane in one way or another.” In his memoir, Life on Air, he admitted he felt lost without her. Work steered him through grief and he has immersed himself in new projects ever since.
Always innovating
Throughout his life he has remained at the forefront of broadcast technology and always looked for new ways to capture the attention of his audience. Kingdom of Plants (2012) was filmed at the Royal Botanical Gardens using the latest in 3D technology. And, although he concedes the technology is not perfect, he says: “when you see time-lapse photography of plants flowering in 3D, the results are absolutely mesmeric.” It is this enthusiasm that has captured the hearts and minds not just of his billions of fans, but of his colleagues too.
Anthony Geffen, CEO and Executive Producer of Atlantic Productions, has collaborated with Attenborough on a number of projects. He admits that after a long day of shooting he expected the octogenarian to retire to his room for some well-earned shuteye. Far from it. Geffen says: “when we get back he’s fired up and wants to go out and talk and drink red wine.” It is this lovable charm that has made him a cult figure.
It is easy to forget his advanced age; he still wears the same joyful smile and exudes the same gusto he always has. During the filming of Galapagos he was reunited with Lonesome George, the last known Pinta giant tortoise. “It was almost the last shot we got,” says Attenborough. “I crawled up alongside him and he looked at me. He was very old and creaky, just like me. I said a few words to him, he didn’t reply. He was, in a scientific sense, already dead because a lonely male without a female has no future.”
The comparison between the two giants is remarkable: both are in many ways the last of their kind – something we are unlikely to ever see again. There have been many articles written about who will succeed such an iconic figure, but he doesn’t need replacing, not yet. He is a grandfather figure to so many, and like so many grandfathers he has plenty of years left to astound and captivate the attention of yet another generation of children.
