Sir David Attenborough, the renowned wildlife presenter who has been making documentaries for 70 years, believes that the world would be in a much worse state if it were not for the broadcasting of natural history. Attenborough acknowledged that people find these documentaries a source of fascination and beauty and insist that they play a vital role in environmental conservation.
In September 2024, the BBC will commemorate 90 years of broadcasting from Bristol. The city has a deep association with wildlife programming that dates back to the mid-1940s. Wildlife presenters Peter Scott and Desmond Hawkins were pioneers in their field and captured the nation’s imagination with their conservation efforts, featuring legendary German filmmaker Heinz Sielmann, the first person to film inside a woodpecker’s nest.
Sir David’s early programmes had the goal of capturing wild animals for zoo collections. As times have changed, Sir David insists that his current documentaries have a powerful message that the natural world is in danger like never before, and conservation is necessary for its survival. Nowadays, such programming is also capable of capturing wildlife scenes in ultra-high-definition 4k quality with modern equipment like drones, which Sir David showcases on his new series called Asia.
Sir David has made over 70 documentaries, including the landmark programme Life on Earth, which attracted an audience of 15 million viewers. He has received due credit for his innovative and insightful documentaries, but he remains very humble, saying that he speaks the words, and the people working behind the scenes deserve most of the credit. Nonetheless, natural history documentaries have become a key part of environmental conservation, raising awareness of the risks the natural world faces around the globe.
As part of the BBC’s upcoming documentary to commemorate 90 years of broadcasting from Bristol, Sir David spoke exclusively to the BBC, where he shared how filmmaking has come a long way since he started his career. Today’s filmmakers gather hundreds of hours of video to capture special moments that last only seconds, compared to when he made Zoo Quest, where cameras would film for only 40 seconds before the clockwork motor stopped.
Going forward, Sir David believes that natural history programmes will continue to play a crucial role in conservation efforts, and they are critical for raising awareness about the state of natural habitats globally. In more ways than one, Bristol’s role in wildlife programming has been seminal, and Sir David considers it a joy to visit Bristol, adding that there is nowhere else like it in the world for natural history presenters
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