89 Facts About Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author.

Sir David Attenborough is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural history documentary series forming the Life collection, a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth.

Sir David Attenborough is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black and white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolutions.

Sir David Attenborough has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity, limiting population growth, switching to renewable energy, mitigating climate change, reducing meat consumption, and setting aside more areas for natural preservation.

Sir David Attenborough is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, although he himself does not like the term.

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Sir David Attenborough is the younger brother of the late director, producer and actor Richard Attenborough, and older brother of the late motor executive John Attenborough.

Sir David Attenborough was born on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth, Middlesex, and grew up in College House on the campus of the University of Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal.

Sir David Attenborough is the middle of three sons; his elder brother, Richard, became an actor and director, and his younger brother, John, was an executive at Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo.

Sir David Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and natural specimens.

Sir David Attenborough received encouragement when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection.

Sir David Attenborough won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945 to study geology and zoology and obtained a degree in natural sciences.

Sir David Attenborough had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013 as well as a double knee replacement in 2015.

Sir David Attenborough soon became disillusioned with the work and in 1950 applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC.

The result was Zoo Quest, first broadcast in 1954, where Sir David Attenborough became the presenter at short notice due to Lester being taken ill.

Sir David Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled.

Sir David Attenborough became Controller of BBC 2 in March 1965, succeeding Michael Peacock.

Sir David Attenborough had a clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis.

When Sir David Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule.

Sir David Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series.

Sir David Attenborough shared his idea with Christopher Parsons, a producer at the Natural History Unit, who came up with a title Life on Earth and returned to Bristol to start planning the series.

In 1969, Sir David Attenborough was promoted to director of programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels.

When Sir David Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director-General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job.

Sir David Attenborough stated that he wanted to work in Asia, because previous nature documentaries had mostly focused on Africa.

That year, Sir David Attenborough was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Language of Animals.

Sir David Attenborough presented a series on tribal art and another on the voyages of discovery.

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Sir David Attenborough presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled Fabulous Animals, which featured mythical creatures such as mermaids and unicorns.

Innovation was another factor in Life on Earth's success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Sir David Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were up till then unfilmed.

International air travel enabled the series to be devised so that Sir David Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one sequence.

At this point, Sir David Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles and amphibians were missing.

However, in 2010 Sir David Attenborough asserted that his First Life – dealing with evolutionary history before Life on Earth – should be included within the "Life" series.

Alongside the "Life" series, Sir David Attenborough continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre.

Sir David Attenborough wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of the Mediterranean Basin, The First Eden, in 1987.

Sir David Attenborough narrated every episode of Wildlife on One, a BBC One wildlife series that ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005.

Sir David Attenborough has narrated over 50 episodes of Natural World, BBC Two's flagship wildlife series.

Alastair Fothergill, a senior producer with whom Sir David Attenborough had worked on The Trials of Life and Life in the Freezer, was making The Blue Planet, the Unit's first comprehensive series on marine life.

Sir David Attenborough decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to a camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films.

In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Sir David Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature.

Sir David Attenborough introduced and narrated the Unit's first 4K production Life Story.

For Planet Earth II, Sir David Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter, with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer.

On radio, Sir David Attenborough has continued as one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's Tweet of the Day, which began a second series in September 2014.

Sir David Attenborough forged a partnership with Sky, working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Sky 3D.

Sir David Attenborough has narrated A majestic celebration: Wild Karnataka, India's first blue-chip natural history film, directed by Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha.

Sir David Attenborough narrated the 2018 five part series Dynasties, each episode dealing with one species in particular.

Sir David Attenborough returned to prehistoric life with Dinosaurs: The Final Day and Prehistoric Planet aired in April and May 2022 respectively.

Sir David Attenborough later turned to the issues of global warming and human population growth.

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Sir David Attenborough contributed a programme which highlighted the plight of endangered species to the BBC's Saving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.

In 2019, Sir David Attenborough narrated Our Planet, an eight-part documentary series, for Netflix.

Sir David Attenborough narrated Wild Karnataka, a documentary about the Karnataka forest area.

In 2021, Sir David Attenborough narrated A Perfect Planet, a five-part earth science series for BBC One.

Sir David Attenborough was a key figure in the build-up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, and gave a speech at the opening ceremony.

Sir David Attenborough's programmes have often included references to the impact of human society on the natural world.

Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Sir David Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans.

In Seven Worlds, One Planet, Sir David Attenborough discusses the devastating impact that deforestation is having on the planet and the species.

In 2005 and 2006, Sir David Attenborough backed a BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats.

Sir David Attenborough serves as a vice-president of The Conservation Volunteers, vice-president of Fauna and Flora International, president of Butterfly Conservation and president emeritus of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen, of which Sir David Attenborough is a patron.

In 2020, Sir David Attenborough was named as a member of the Earthshot prize Council, an initiative of Prince William to find solutions to environmental issues.

Sir David Attenborough is a patron of the Friends of Richmond Park and serves on the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine.

Sir David Attenborough was initially sceptical about the human influence on climate change, and stated that a 2004 lecture finally convinced him humans were responsible.

Sir David Attenborough attended and spoke at COP26 as the "People's Advocate" for the event, and urged world leaders to act to reduce emissions.

Sir David Attenborough supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal.

Sir David Attenborough has linked anthropogenic effects on the environment with human population growth.

Sir David Attenborough has attracted criticism for his views on human overpopulation and human population control.

Sir David Attenborough is a patron of Population Matters, a UK charity advocating for family planning, sustainable consumption and proposed sustainable human population.

Sir David Attenborough has explained that he feels the evidence all over the planet clearly shows evolution to be the best way to explain the diversity of life, and that "as far as [he's] concerned, if there is a supreme being then he chose organic evolution as a way of bringing into existence the natural world".

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Sir David Attenborough said "It never really occurred to me to believe in God".

In 2002, Sir David Attenborough joined an effort by leading clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of UK state-funded independent schools which receive private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

Sir David Attenborough further explained to the science journal Nature, "That's why Darwinism, and the fact of evolution, is of great importance, because it is that attitude which has led to the devastation of so much, and we are in the situation that we are in".

Sir David Attenborough stated that he felt evolution did not rule out the existence of a God and accepted the title of agnostic saying, "My view is: I don't know one way or the other but I don't think that evolution is against a belief in God".

Sir David Attenborough has joined the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and other top scientists in signing a campaign statement co-ordinated by the British Humanist Association.

Sir David Attenborough is a lifelong supporter of the BBC, public service broadcasting and the television licence.

In 1998, Sir David Attenborough described himself as "a standard, boring left-wing liberal" and expressed the view that the market economy was "misery".

In 2013, Sir David Attenborough joined rock guitarists Brian May and Slash in opposing the government's policy on the cull of badgers in the UK by participating in a song dedicated to badgers.

Sir David Attenborough was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in the 2014 referendum on that issue.

Sir David Attenborough roamed the globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating.

Sir David Attenborough has honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Durham University and the University of Cambridge and honorary Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Ghent.

Sir David Attenborough has received the title Honorary Fellow from Clare College, Cambridge, the Zoological Society of London, the Linnean Society, the Institute of Biology, and the Society of Antiquaries.

Sir David Attenborough is Honorary Patron of the North American Native Plant Society and was elected as a Corresponding Member of the Australian Academy of Science.

Sir David Attenborough has been featured as the subject of a number of BBC television programmes.

Sir David Attenborough was featured prominently in The Way We Went Wild, a series about natural history television presenters, and 100 Years of Wildlife Films, a programme marking the centenary of the nature documentary.

The winning clip showed Sir David Attenborough observing the mimicry skills of the superb lyrebird.

Sir David Attenborough was named the most trusted celebrity in the UK in a 2006 Reader's Digest poll, and in 2007 he won The Culture Show's Living Icon Award.

Sir David Attenborough has been named among the 100 Greatest Britons in a 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten "Heroes of Our Time" according to New Statesman magazine.

Several Arthropods are named after Attenborough including a butterfly, Attenborough's black-eyed satyr, a dragonfly, Attenborough's pintail, a millimetre-long goblin spider, an ornate Caribbean smiley-faced spider, an Indonesian flightless weevil, a Madagascan ghost shrimp, and a soil snail.

Sir David Attenborough is recognised by Guinness World Records as having the longest career as a natural historian and presenter in television.

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Sir David Attenborough narrated every episode of the long-running BBC series Wildlife on One and in his later career has voiced several high-profile BBC wildlife documentaries, among them The Blue Planet and Planet Earth.

Sir David Attenborough became a pioneer in the 3D documentary format with Flying Monsters in 2010.

Sir David Attenborough wrote an accompanying volume to each of his nine Life documentaries, along with books on tribal art and birds of paradise.

Sir David Attenborough has contributed forewords and introductions to many other works, notably those accompanying Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Africa and other BBC series he has narrated.