David Attenborough
David Frederick 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. His father, Frederick, served as principal there during that time. David was the middle son among three boys. His elder brother Richard became an actor and director. His younger brother John worked as an executive at Alfa Romeo. During the Second World War, his parents fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Germany through a volunteer network called the Refugee Children's Movement.
The young boy spent much of his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and natural specimens in the university grounds. A young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection and offered encouragement. When he was around eleven years old, the zoology department needed newts for research. He supplied them from a nearby pond for three pence each. A year later, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures. That same piece of amber would become the focus of an episode titled The Amber Time Machine sixty years later.
In 1936, David and his brother attended a lecture by Grey Owl at De Montfort Hall in Leicester. They were deeply influenced by his advocacy for conservation. Richard recalled that David was bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling its riches was unheard of at that time. This concept remained part of David's own credo until the end of his life.
Attenborough became Controller of BBC Two in March 1965 after succeeding Michael Peacock. He inserted a clause into his contract allowing him to make programmes on an occasional basis. Later that same year, he filmed elephants in Tanzania. In 1969, he created a three-part series about the cultural history of Bali. For the 1971 film A Blank on the Map, he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley in New Guinea.
When Attenborough arrived as controller, he abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot. He shook up the schedule to capture public imagination. His mission was to make BBC Two diverse and different from other networks. Under his tenure, music, arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science, and natural history all found places in weekly schedules. Programmes he commissioned included Man Alive, Call My Bluff, Chronicle, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and The Money Programme.
One significant decision involved ordering a thirteen-part series on the history of Western art. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, Civilisation presented by Sir Kenneth Clark became the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries. Others followed including Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man and Alistair Cooke's America: A Personal History of the United States. Attenborough thought evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared this idea with Christopher Parsons who came up with the title Life on Earth.
Beginning with Life on Earth in 1979, Attenborough created a body of work that became a benchmark of quality in wildlife filmmaking. By treating subjects seriously and researching latest discoveries, he gained trust from scientists. They responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in programmes. Innovation was another factor in success as new film-making techniques were devised to capture events previously unfilmed. International air travel enabled visits to several locations around the globe within each episode.
Five years after Life on Earth, the BBC released The Living Planet. This time, Attenborough built his series around ecology and adaptations of living things to their environment. It generated huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, The Trials of Life completed the original trilogy by looking at animal behaviour through different stages of life. In the 1990s, he continued using the Life title for authored documentaries including Life in the Freezer in 1993.
The Private Life of Plants aired in 1995 and showed plants as dynamic organisms using time-lapse photography. It earned a Peabody Award. The Life of Birds followed in 1998 and won a second Peabody Award. Low-light and infrared cameras revealed nocturnal mammal behaviour in The Life of Mammals in 2002. Advances in macro photography captured natural behaviour of very small creatures in Life in the Undergrowth in 2005. When Life in Cold Blood broadcast in 2008, he had completed the set covering all major groups of terrestrial animals.
By the turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries adopted an overtly environmentalist stance. State of the Planet in 2000 used scientific evidence to assess human impact on the natural world. He later turned to global warming issues in The Truth about Climate Change in 2006. Human population growth became the focus of How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? in 2009. In 2019, his one-off film documentary Climate Change , The Facts aired with a significantly graver tone than previous work.
In 2020, he narrated David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet which acted as his witness statement reflecting on his career and hopes for the future. It was released on Netflix on the 4th of October 2020. Further work included Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet released on the 4th of June 2021. In 2021, he gave a speech at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Change Conference stating humans were the greatest problem solvers ever existing on Earth.
Attenborough advocated for people to adopt vegetarian diets or reduce meat consumption to save wildlife. He noted that the planet cannot support billions of meat-eaters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he advocated on behalf of the Zoological Society of London regarding conservation efforts impacted by economic fallout. In 2020, he was named a member of the Earthshot Prize Council initiated by Prince William.
By January 2013, Attenborough had collected thirty-two honorary degrees from British universities more than any other person. In 1980, he was honoured by the Open University with which he maintained close association throughout his career. He received honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Durham University in 1982 and Cambridge University in 1984. Honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees came from Oxford University in 1988 and Ghent University in 1997.
In 1985, he became Knight Bachelor during the Birthday Honours. By 1996, he was Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to nature broadcasting. In 2005, he received the Member of the Order of Merit. The year 2020 saw him elevated to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to television broadcasting and conservation.
At least twenty species and genera both living and extinct have been named in his honour. Plants include an alpine hawkweed discovered in the Brecon Beacons and a species of Ecuadorian flowering tree called Blakea attenboroughi. One of the world's largest-pitched carnivorous plants bears his name as Nepenthes attenboroughii. Several arthropods are named after him including butterflies dragonflies spiders millimetre-long goblin spiders and flightless weevils.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When and where was David Attenborough born?
David Frederick 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.
What early experiences influenced David Attenborough's interest in natural history?
As a child, David Attenborough collected fossils, stones, and natural specimens in the university grounds while his father served as principal at University College, Leicester. A young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection and offered encouragement during this period.
Which major documentary series did David Attenborough create starting from 1979?
Beginning with Life on Earth in 1979, David Attenborough created a body of work that became a benchmark of quality in wildlife filmmaking. This included The Living Planet released five years later and The Trials of Life which completed the original trilogy in 1990.
How many honorary degrees had David Attenborough received by January 2013?
By January 2013, David Attenborough had collected thirty-two honorary degrees from British universities more than any other person. These honors include Doctor of Science degrees from Durham University in 1982 and Cambridge University in 1984.
When was the Netflix film David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet released?
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet was released on Netflix on the 4th of October 2020. It acted as his witness statement reflecting on his career and hopes for the future.