David Attenborough CBE FRS OM

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English broadcaster and natural historian.

Biography

David Frederick Attenborough was born on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex, England to Frederick Attenborough and Mary Clegg. The family consisted of three sons (David, Sir Richard and John) and two daughters - the girls were fostered through the Refugee Children's Movement. His father, Frederick, was the headmaster of University College, Leicester - and so David was raised on the college campus and collected fossils, stones, and newts (which he sold to the local college for threepence per newt, even though the pond they lived in was less than five metres from the college).

In 1936, aged only ten, David was introduced to the concept of conservation, when he attended a lecture on the subject and was immediately inspired by the speaker, Archibald Belaney. Conservation continues to be a subject dear to David's heart even today. Later, David won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945, studying geology and zoology. His BA degree was in natural sciences.

In 1947 he was 'called up' for National Service in the Royal Navy and was stationed in North Wales for two years.

In 1950 he married 1950 Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel in Surrey, England. ^[1] David and Jane had two children.

1952 saw the beginning of David's long-lived career with BBC Television. He started out in the "Talks" Department, working on non-fiction broadcasts including quiz shows, then began working on programmes linked to natural history. In 1957, the BBC's "Natural History Unit" was established in Bristol. Attenborough did not wish to move from London, and so created his own department, "Travel and Exploration Unit", ^[2] which made it possible for him to continue working on natural history programmes there.

In 1960 he resigned from the BBC in order to continue his education with a postgraduate degree - this time in social anthropology. Before he finished the degree, however, he had returned to the BBC as controller of BBC Two. The television channel was not as popular as BBC One - until Attenborough shook it up, rescheduled programming, and included such shows as "Monty Python's Flying Circus", "Call My Bluff", and "The Old Grey Whistle Test". "Civilisation" showed off the new colour service in 1969, and became the landmark for future documentaries. Attenborough continued to climb up the promotion ladder, even being suggested for Director-General of the BBC. He did not take the position, however, and in 1973 resigned again to return to his first love: working on programmes.

Sir David Attenborough at ARKive

He began to work as a freelance broadcaster and, after returning from Indonesia on another project, he started working on "Life on Earth", which began production in 1976. This series became a benchmark in wildlife film-making and a star of the BBC's natural history programmes. It was so successful that it was followed by "The Living Planet", which looked at ecology, then "The Trials of Life", looking at animal behaviour. A memorable moment from the series was that of a killer whale leaping out of the sea to eat a sea lion. In 1985, David received a knighthood and became Sir David. In 1993, Sir David screened "Life in the Freezer" - covering the natural history of Antarctica. In 1995 he showed "The Private Life of Plants", using time-lapse photography. Next followed "The Life of Birds" in 1998, then "The Life of Mammals" (using infrared cameras), "Life in the Undergrowth" (2005), "Life in Cold Blood" (2008) , then "Life on Land" as a DVD set. "Life on Air" is Sir David's autobiography, published in 2002 and revised in 2009.

"The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said "Don't be ridiculous!" These programmes tell a particular story and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did, but I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years' time, it will still have something to say about the world we live in." Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough receiving Landscape Institute Awards

Sir David Attenborough then narrated "The Blue Planet", a series on marine life. "Blue Planet II" followed in 2017 and gained 14.1 million viewers, the highest viewing figures in that year. In October 2020, Sir David began to film "The Green Planet".

Aged 94, Sir David Attenborough received a second knighthood. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael And St George for services to television broadcasting and conservation. ^[3]

In 2021, Sir David narrated "A Perfect Planet", a history of geoscience of the planet.

"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." Sir David Attenborough

Sitana attenboroughii fan-throated lizard

Bibliography

For complete bibliography, please see freespace page

• Zoo Quest to Guyana (1956)
• Zoo Quest for a Dragon (1957) – republished in 1959 to include an additional 85 pages titled Quest for the Paradise Birds
• Zoo Quest in Paraguay (1959)
• Quest in Paradise (1960)
• People of Paradise (1960)
• Zoo Quest to Madagascar (1961)
• Quest Under Capricorn (1963)
• Fabulous Animals (1975)
• The Tribal Eye (1976)
• Life on Earth (1979)
• Discovering Life on Earth (1981)
• The Living Planet (1984)

Sources

1. ↑ England & Wales marriage registration: Surrey N. [district], Volume 5g, Page 537, March quarter 1950, David F ATTENBOROUGH and Jane E E ORIEL
2. ↑ Attenborough, David (2002). Life on Air. BBC Books
3. ↑ Attenborough gets a second knighthood (The Gazette)

See Also:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_Collection