. It reaches beyond the generations of viewers who grew up watching and being inspired by his work, to fundamentally alter the DNA of the entire nature documentary genre. Before Attenborough, these were routinely dry affairs. But, even worse, they were fabricated. The most egregious example being Disney’s White Wilderness , which famously herded hundreds of lemmings off a cliff to “prove” a biological myth. That film would win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1959.
David Attenborough, portrait, circa 1970s.
Neil Libbert
Sir David has never won an Oscar, but his mantlepiece is overstuffed with BAFTAs, Emmys, two knighthoods and a Guinness World Record.
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While Disney’s nature crew were pushing lemmings to their doom, he was reinventing the genre with the fifth season of his Zoo Quest series, by travelling with the show to appear on screen in locations like Sierra Leone, New Guinea, Paraguay and Indonesia, where he captured the first ever footage of the fearsome Komodo Dragon. No movie magic needed here, just his utter commitment to bringing the truth of our world to our screens.
David Attenborough was 30 when this game came out in 1956 – Zoo Quest was his first television show – where he and a cameraman would go to far flung places and capture wild animals for the London Zoo. The aim of the game is to do the same thing. Zoo quest was filmed in black and white, they’d then show the footage on the programme and Attenborough would then appear live in the studio with the animal in question.
Jeremy Parkinson
He kept a tight schedule, releasing a new series almost annually, when 1979’s 13-episode epic Life on Earth fundamentally shook the globe and changed everything. Three years in the making, and with a small army of 500 scientists behind it, the show was a revolution of scope. Its premise was nothing less than the history of life on earth, and was powered by trailblazing, cinematic techniques that allowed us mere humans to witness miracles of nature previously unseen. Camera crews spent hundreds of gruelling hours stalking out animals for a single shot, but it was a moment of unscripted and unexpected joy that launched the series into the stratosphere and transformed Attenborough into a cultural force. He was quietly observing a mama gorilla and her two children, barely containing his excitement at being so close to the creatures, when they wandered closer and began playing with him. It turned the nature enthusiast into an icon.
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“It seems really unfair that man should have chosen the gorilla to symbolise all that is aggressive and violent,” he whispers, hair freshly tussled from the thrilling interaction, “when that’s the one thing that the gorilla is not. And that we are”.
They were prophetic words. The statement became truer as the years rolled on.
Attenborough holding a water crocodile in Australia 2023.
Daniel Berehulak
After Life on Earth , his shows screened on the telly here religiously on Sunday nights throughout the 80s and 90s. A new series was often hyped up for weeks before screening and would become a major TV event. For schoolkids, it was always a good day when the teacher rolled out the TV/AV combo unit, and let Sir David’s whispered observations fill the classroom.
As the times changed, so did the tone of Attenborough’s work. The wide-eyed wonder of the early years took on a sharpened urgency in series like Blue Planet II and A Life on Our Planet , which showed how the aggression and violence of man towards our own climate, habitat and natural resources were killing off species forever while also irrecoverably affecting our home. He went from narrating life to advocating for it.
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On his 100th birthday, his legacy is clear. Sir David Attenborough made our world the greatest show on earth, one brimming with joy, mystery, and the occasional flash of indifferent horror. He brought the furthest reaches of our world into our living rooms and inspired generations to love and protect the planet and the creatures we share it with.
What a great gift he has given us.
Sir David Attenborough receives the Chatham House Centenary Lifetime Award at an event on October 13, 2021 in London, England.
Rob Pinney
Birthday notes from New Zealanders
Janet Jardine, 95-year-old super fan and pen pal of Sir David
David Attenborough is an old pen friend. Though he may not remember me, he has been my hero for many years. He had a great love for nature and was so enthusiastic that I thought, what a wonderful man. I wrote him a letter and was absolutely thrilled when he replied. I had a lot of correspondence with him, they were all typewritten, probably by his secretary, but it was a great thrill to get them.
On one occasion, he reprimanded me for replying to all of them, saying, ‘If I answered all the letters that I’ve received, I wouldn’t have time for anything else!’. I thought that was a bit rude. But it was such a thrill to get them. I kept them all.
I loved his enthusiasm for nature. There was a documentary on Stewart Island when he was describing the experience of sitting next to the kākāpō and feeling so privileged to be there. He fully believed in trying to save our precious species, particularly the gorillas. He had a very soft spot for the gorillas.
I’m just so glad to look back and know that I’ve talked to him. Best wishes, David, and a happy 100th birthday!
David Attenborough attends the National Television Awards 2018 at The O2 Arena on January 23, 2018 in London, England.
Dave J Hogan
Keziah D’Souza, Assistant Collection Manager, Entomology at Auckland Museum
Sir David was my inspiration to pursue a field in Ecology, and though my interests turned from Botany to Entomology (I can’t resist a parasitoid!), my love and appreciation for the environment started with Sir David Attenborough. His documentary Kingdom of Plants was shot in Kew Gardens over the course of a year, with Sir David pointing out the incredible ways plants interact with each other and the rest of their environment. He also talked about Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which was the first time it really hit the high school me that we needed to know what we have, so we know what we have to lose.
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Sir David’s warm enthusiasm and watching him hunch over plants or point up to flowers that bloomed in the night taught me to slow down and take in the world and to look closely at that patch of moss, or sniff that red tree sap.
Let’s protect the environment that feeds and cares for us.
Nicola Toki, New Zealand conservationist
When I was a kid, I wanted to be David Attenborough when I grew up. He’s my absolute hero in the way he’s been able to connect people all over the world to the natural world and inspire them. I was like an overly excited teenager at a rock concert when I got to see him live onstage 10 years ago at The Civic Theatre in Auckland.
My favourite documentary of his is Life on Earth . It gave me the opportunity to explore the world from my living room, and he really made clear the connections between animals and their environment. Obviously, the pictures were beautiful, and he has that incredible way of communicating science. For me, as a wee kid, it was the ultimate Sunday night telly.
I think Sir David has done more for the protection of the natural world than he ever anticipated when he decided to go off and make these amazing wildlife shows. You can experience nature, feel that connection, and learn about what’s important by watching a TV show.
Ellie Hooper, Campaigner at Greenpeace Aotearoa
Without a doubt, my favourite series has got to be Attenborough’s latest offering – Ocean – released a year ago this week. While I’ve enjoyed every documentary I’ve seen of Attenborough’s, seeing him turn his attention to the incredibly pressing issue of bottom trawling and the need for High Seas protection was especially significant for me.
Having worked on both issues for years from a Greenpeace perspective and witnessed some of the heinous damage caused by bottom trawling myself, Ocean was a moving and timely watch.
I definitely shed some tears watching the footage, but mainly because it gave me a huge amount of hope, thinking that finally, with the world watching, we might get the global ocean protection from destructive fishing practices we so desperately need.
Nic Dunn, Director Wildlife Conservation, Te Nukuao Wildlife
For me, the most impactful story that Sir David Attenborough told was Life on Earth , a series produced in 1979. I watched this as a kid, and episode 12, where David comes face to face with wild gorillas is one of the defining moments of my life.
It made me decide that I needed to work with primates to help protect them.
Karl Puschmann is an arts and entertainment journalist and also runs Screen Crack, a popular Substack dedicated to deep-diving into film and television. screencrack.substack.com .
