David Attenborough at the BBC

As we celebrate his 100th birthday, a chance to hear some of the highlights of Sir David Attenborough’s exceptional and unique career. We hear about his childhood in Leicester, with his university chancellor father and suffragette mother, who took in two refugees from the Kindertransport during the war. He discusses keeping pets, being urged by his brother Richard to be a bit of an actor and being turned down for a job as a BBC radio producer. He then became a last minute television presenter replacement in 1954 and subsequently travelled across continents showing us the true wonders of the natural world.

He modestly mentions the only creatures that scared him - even though he was one of the first humans to be filmed being accepted by mountain gorillas in the jungles of Rwanda. And he describes how he was equally at home at the North Pole or in a cave full of bats.

David also celebrates BBC Television Centre with Michael Grade and Bob Harris – revealing that when he was BBC2 controller he knew exactly what they were up to in The Old Grey Whistle Test studios with Bob Marley. While working at Shepherds Bush he introduced us to snooker in colour and the epic Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation series, which inspired him to create the groundbreaking Life On Earth.

David’s story is equally about his long term concern for the planet and we hear him meeting Greta Thunberg, being astonished by the public response to images of plastic in the oceans, being praised by Prince William as the Earthshot prize was launched at Kensington Palace and addressing world leaders at the recent COP26 conference in Glasgow. David remembers Zoo Quest, The Trials Of Life, The Blue Planet and The Frozen Planet, amongst many other landmark moments, through his past interviews with BBC presenters. These include Sue Lawley and Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs, Sue MacGregor on The Reunion, and Steve Wright, Tim Smith, John Dunn, Jeremy Vine and Pete Murray on Radio 2, plus Nicky Campbell, Greg James, Mishal Husain, Nick Robinson, Peter Curran and producer Julian May.