[1.4] 12 About 12: David Attenborough
Producing Emmy-awarded documentaries, observing our planet, and educating generations
Hi!
This β12 about 12β series is simply 12 facts about 12 people who have managed to make a life of travel. Each story is broken down into four parts:
Origin: how did they start traveling?
Grind: what did they sacrifice?
Breakthrough: when did they go big?
Scale: what are they making of it now?
At the end of each email, I compress my takeaways from the traveler into jus one thing to remember.
Have an amazing week!
~ Atom
#4
Britainβs favorite broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. π¬π§π¬π§π¬π§
Narrating with his melodic and heavily accented voice
Origins
Sir David spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and natural specimens. His βmuseumβ deeply impressed Jacquetta Hawkes, a prominent archaeologist, when she visited in 1934. Sir David was only 7 at the time.
When he turned 10, Sir David attended a lecture given by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) that inspired him more than anything else.
According to his brother, David was "bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of Dave's own credo to this day."
Sir David took his passion to higher education when in 1945 he won a scholarship to study geology and zoology at Clare College, Cambridge.
Grind
Upon graduation, Sir David began work editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company.
He soon became disillusioned with the work and in 1950 applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC. Although he was rejected, BBC was impressed enough to offer him a three-month training course instead. In 1952 he joined the BBC full-time.
By 1954, the tenacious 28-year-old joined forces with the reptile curator Jack Lester to originate the hit television series Zoo Quest, which combined live studio presentations with footage of rare animals shot on location for the first time.
In 1965 Attenborough became controller of the BBCβs new second television channel, BBC-2. Four years later, he was appointed Director of Programmes with editorial responsibility for both BBCβs television networks.
Breakthrough
Eight years behind a desk was too much for him, and he resigned in 1973 to return to program making. His first production following was Tribal Eye, a seven-part BBC documentary series featuring tribes so isolated it is thought they hadn't been contacted by Europeans before Sir David's arrival.
In the late 1970s, Sir David traveled the world to deliver Life on Earth (1979), a natural history program of a scale and ambition never been attempted. Itβs estimated that 500 million people watched the series worldwide. This became a trilogy, with The Living Planet (1984) and The Trials of Life (1990).
In 1985 he received a knighthood granting him the title of Sir David Attenborough.
Scale
By the turn of the millennium, Sir David took on a more overtly environmentalist stance with film such as State of the Planet (2000), The Truth about Climate Change (2006), and How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? (2009).
On May 6, 2022, Sir David turned 96. Heβs produced, written, narrated, or presented over 100 documentaries. In turn, heβs won 3 Emmies, several BAFTA awards, and 1 Peabody Award.
THE ONE THING
It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.
- Sir David Attenborough
The most notable thing about Sir Davidβs 96 years of life is it seems all 96 were spent indulging his joy and passion for the natural world. Small, obscure moments saw him pulled away but he always found his way backβeven if that meant leaving the economic security or social privilege of his previous jobs.
Accordingly, Sir David admits he never started making programs with global advocacies in mind. His contributions are 10th-degree outcomes of his simply joy in observing the natural world.
In September 2013, he commented: "If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not. I'm swanning around the world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune."
Sources:
15 Fascinating Facts about Sir David Attenborough
Nine astonishing ways David Attenborough shaped your world
David Attenborough Biography by Brittanica