Interview: David Attenborough

The broadcaster tells Benji Wilson why even after 55 years of making nature series there’s still more he plans to achieve.

David Attenborough with a mission golden-eyed tree frog
David Attenborough with a mission golden-eyed tree frog Credit: Photo: BBC

A new digital channel launches on January 26 dedicated to programmes about the natural world. It’s called Eden, but "Attenborough” would have done just as well: not only do Sir David Attenborough’s natural history series provide many of the highlights of Eden’s schedule, but if ever one man defines an entire genre of programming, it’s Attenborough.

“I’m prejudiced,” he says, “but these are the sort of programmes that you can watch over and over again. And when you think that over half the world’s population is now regarded as urbanised, there are people who have never seen wild things. The paradox is that through television they can be better informed about the natural world than ever before.”

Much of that television has been made by Attenborough, 82, who has been presenting ever since Zoo Quest in 1954. “On Zoo Quest I started off actually catching animals [for zoos]. That’s quite extraordinary looking back on it. But zoos were like that 50 years ago. If you had an interesting animal and it died, you went out and caught another one.”

Technological advances, he says, have improved nature series immeasurably (he calls Zoo Quest “terrible”) but they have also raised viewers’ expectations.

“Before it was just me and a cameraman,” he says. “Now you’ve got the guy who’s a specialist on slo-mo or night cameras, and then we’ve got to have endoscopes, so we better have a jib arm… I’ve gone on shoots where there have been 40 bags of gear.”

Those kinds of logistics and expertise cost money – around £10 m in the case of 2006’s Planet Earth. With broadcasters at the mercy of the credit crunch where does that leave Attenborough’s brand of event programming?

“You have to think about the cost per viewer. You may only have a quarter of the audience because of [a multiplicity of digital channels] and so on. But the programme’s still costing the same: who’s going to pay for that? If you lose the big players, if you lose BBC1, you will lose budget.” That, he says, can only diminish the quality of the programmes. “The result is the film is not as good.”

Planet Earth is often held up as an example of what the BBC is supposed to be about. Attenborough, who has been with the Corporation for more than half a century, including stints as Controller of BBC2 and Director of Programmes, is one of its staunchest supporters.

“There isn’t another organisation that could make Planet Earth,” he says. “There are two ways of determining what programme you’re going to make. One: get the maximum audience and therefore charge the maximum amount for advertising. But there’s another system that says we have a responsibility to explore the full spectrum of programming. That makes you say, ‘Why don’t we try a 13-part series on the history of life?’ You don’t necessarily do it because you think it’s going to make a lot of money or get a big audience. But it ought to be done. That’s public service broadcasting.”

His next documentary for BBC1, Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, transmitting on February 1, will look at one of the overarching themes of his career: evolution. Darwin showed how all life is related. Attenborough feels that people need reminding that his discoveries aren’t just a matter of opinion.

“The proof comes from fossils, geographical distribution, genetics,” he says. “Since Darwin propounded [his theory] we have dealt with every one of the objections there have been. That’s what this programme is about: showing the evidence. What really gets me down is when people say, ‘It’s only a theory that we are related to apes.’ It’s not only a theory. It is a historical fact, evident and provable.”

After Darwin, Attenborough is narrating a series called Nature’s Great Events, also transmitting on BBC1 in February, covering arctic ice melts and peripatetic salmon. Plainly, rumours of his retirement after the end of his epic Life… series have been exaggerated.

“I never said [I’d retire],” he says. “It’s just that I don’t suggest I do another long job. I say I’d like to do a programme on this or that and they say, ‘OK, well go and do it.’ I don’t intend to retire until I’m chucked out. I’m having too good a time.”

Eden launches on Monday 26th January (Sky channel 532, Virgin Media channel 208)