Short answers, pulled from the story.
David Attenborough was born on the 8th of May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex. He grew up in College House on the campus of University College, Leicester, where his father Frederick served as principal.
David Attenborough's first major television series was Zoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954. He became the presenter at short notice after the original host, reptile house curator Jack Lester, fell ill.
As Controller of BBC Two from March 1965, Attenborough commissioned programmes including Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Old Grey Whistle Test, and Civilisation, the landmark series on Western art presented by Sir Kenneth Clark. He also brought snooker to the BBC via Pot Black to showcase colour television.
At least 20 species and genera, both living and extinct, have been named in David Attenborough's honour. They include plants, arthropods, fish, lizards, frogs, a bat, an echidna, and a fossil horseshoe crab, as well as the ichneumon wasp genus Attenboroughnculus, named on his 100th birthday.
David Attenborough turned 100 on the 8th of May 2026. A gala concert was held at the Royal Albert Hall, attended by William, Prince of Wales, Olivia Colman, Dame Judi Dench, and others. The BBC broadcast the celebration as a 90-minute programme titled David Attenborough's 100 Years on Planet Earth.
The Life Collection is a series of nine authored documentaries Attenborough made with the BBC Natural History Unit, beginning with Life on Earth in 1979 and concluding with Life in Cold Blood in 2008. The series covers all major groups of terrestrial animals and plants, with each instalment shaped in part by advances in camera technology.