I have only met Sir David Attenborough once, and this was some years ago, in a lift in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. We were both on our way up, me to meet my wife in the restaurant, and Sir David on his way to look at an exhibit. The fact that we were in the same place at the same time was a complete chance happening. For a short while, and for no reason that was ever given, the lift stalled in its upward path, and so complete strangers who were stuck in a lift started chatting. I think I uttered what many thousands, if not millions, of people would have said about how much I admired his programmes and other things in a similar vein. I can tell you that Sir David brought this flow of inanity, with impeccable patience and kindness to a swift end, and he did me one of the great kindnesses of my life. He gently steered the conversation onto one of the exhibits in the museum and spoke about it in compelling detail, and suggested that I might like to go and see it if I had time once we were liberated from the lift. Shortly thereafter, the lift resumed its journey and we parted and went our separate ways. I cannot remember now, with much regret, the exhibit he suggested I go and see, but the gentleness, kindness, patience, and willingness to share his knowledge and his joy in a particular thing, exactly as we are all so familiar with him being on our TV screens, was something I have never forgotten. There is no chance that Sir David will have any memory of this short and unsought encounter, but for me it was a truly memorable moment.
On Friday 8 May 2026, David Attenborough will celebrate his 100th birthday. This event is already being preceded by huge coverage of his career as a wildlife broadcaster, and quite right too. His broadcasting career spans the meaningful history of broadcasting itself. David Attenborough is revered and admired the world over for his wildlife broadcasts, which have been followed all the world. He has never sought to shy away from the difficult and sometimes distressing challenges the natural world faces.
Along with Sir Peter Scott, who himself did so much to bring attention to the impact of human activity on the natural world, David Attenborough has really shaped all of our understanding of the world that we live in and the planet that we inhabit. Like Peter Scott, he has made a journey from the early days of taking an interest in natural history to providing an authoritative understanding and deeper appreciation of the world we share. Mighty and visible, however, as David Attenborough’s career as an expert and authoritative wildlife broadcaster unquestionably is, there is another area of his career that is no less significant and arguably of equal stature and substance in the legacy that it leaves.
From 1965 to 1969, David Attenborough was controller of BBC Two. He had a clause in his contract that permitted him to take time away from his administrative duties to make programmes. The fact, however, is that during this period his most significant contribution to broadcasting is the work that he undertook in putting the nascent BBC Two, which had struggled since its launch in 1964 to establish itself. In the role of Controller, he proved himself to be no less innovative and creative as a broadcasting administrator than he had already proven himself to be as a presenter. The list of programmes he commissioned stands as a testament to a legendary era of television broadcasting of which he was the architect. An era which set the standards then as it continues to do now. Programmes that included Man Alive, Call My Bluff, Chronicle, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and The Money Programme, to name but a few. He pioneered the introduction of colour television, and to prove its worth he brought snooker to television. He is also credited with persuading tennis to change the colour of its balls from white to yellow so that they could be visible on television. His most significant achievement with the introduction of colour television was ensuring in Britain that it was delivered in a high enough quality that it did not replicate the serious mess that colour television had become in the United States.
The most famous of the programmes that David Attenborough commissioned were Civilisation, presented by Sir Kenneth Clark, The Ascent of Man, presented by Jacob Bronowski, and then of course his own Life on Earth. These series set the standard for documentary filmmaking and presenting then as they do today. They have never been bettered. Dated as the style and some of the language may seem, the truth is that if you watch those series today you will have achieved a level of understanding and education that provides a very good base from which to explore further.
In 1969 he was put in charge of both BBC channels, but the lure of being in front of the camera proved too much of a temptation and he returned, much to all of our enjoyment, to broadcasting. Many thought that he would have been an outstanding Director-General of the BBC, and in 1972 the opportunity presented itself, but it was not to be.
So, rightly, much of the focus is on David Attenborough the broadcaster, the transmitter of knowledge, our guide to the world around us. But it is also right to acknowledge not just his brilliance in front of the camera, but his genius, insight, and creativity as the person who really created BBC Two, and who established the standard of quality and creativity that we have come to expect and hope for in television documentaries. For this we all owe him huge appreciation and thanks.