
David Attenborough (blue shirt, right) during filming for the BBC, Easter Island, September 1999. Photo – the writer.
Sir David Attenborough is, by common consent, the world’s master wildlife documentary presenter, the last of the great TV communicators whose career began with the birth of the medium in which he works.
He has made many epic and wide ranging TV programmes, telling the story of how creatures proceed along the perilous tightrope of life in order to continue, against high odds, their own bloodline through their offspring.
There have been so many remarkable images in those shows of animals, birds and insects demonstrating that fight for survival, and self-perpetuation, from around the world, along with film of gorgeous landscapes and natural spectacles.
I wrote about Sir David in the 1990s and 2000s for various publications, and interviewed him several times.
In 1997 I produced this microsite on Attenborough for the series Life of Birds for PBS Broadcasting (USA). It is still online.
My e-book, David Attenborough – Talking to a Great Broadcaster, is available on Kindle for $0.99, or £0.75 in the UK. Click here
It is based on those interviews, in which Sir David talked about his part in, and the making of, many of those compelling BBC TV series which tell the story of life on Earth. It contains essays and shorter articles I wrote me, with additional material, covering many of his great series, from the original Life on Earth to Wildlife on One.
Working as a feature writer at the UK broadcast listing magazine Radio Times, I specialised for 11 years in writing on the environment, and the output of the BBC Natural History Unit, which included the Attenborough series.