60 Fun Facts About David Attenborough

In which English county town-area was David Attenborough born in 1926?

He grew up not there but in Leicester, on the campus of the university college his father ran.

Attenborough grew up on the campus of which institution, where his father was principal?

The family lived in College House on the campus, and young David spent much of his time in the university grounds.

What did David's older brother Richard become famous as?

Richard Attenborough directed Gandhi and played the park owner in Jurassic Park; John, the youngest brother, went into the car business.

David's younger brother John was an executive at which car manufacturer?

All three Attenborough boys left home for very different careers: film, cars and the natural world.

Aged about 11, Attenborough supplied a university zoology department with which animals for threepence each?

He did not mention that his source was a pond right next to the department building.

In 1936 the young Attenborough brothers were inspired by a Leicester lecture from which conservationist?

Grey Owl was really an Englishman named Archibald Belaney; Richard Attenborough directed a film about him in 1999.

Attenborough won a scholarship in 1945 to which Cambridge college?

He read geology and zoology and came away with a natural sciences degree before national service called.

Attenborough did his national service in which branch of the armed forces?

He spent two years stationed in North Wales and on the Firth of Forth rather than anywhere exotic.

Why was Attenborough initially discouraged from appearing on camera at the BBC?

The verdict came from Mary Adams, head of the Talks department, so he began as a producer instead.

Which 1954 series launched Attenborough's presenting career?

It followed animal-collecting expeditions for London Zoo, and he only ended up in front of the camera because the planned presenter fell ill.

Attenborough took over Zoo Quest when Jack Lester fell ill. What did Lester curate at London Zoo?

The two men had met while making Animal Patterns, a studio series that borrowed London Zoo animals to discuss camouflage and courtship.

Attenborough left BBC staff in the early 1960s to study for a postgraduate degree in what?

He never finished it: the BBC lured him back to run BBC Two before the degree was complete.

In which year did Attenborough become Controller of BBC Two?

He insisted on a contract clause letting him keep making the occasional programme, and was filming elephants in Tanzania the same year.

On taking over BBC Two, Attenborough abolished the channel's mascot. What animal was it?

The channel had launched in 1964 and struggled to catch on; the quirky mascot was one of the first things to go.

Which sport did Attenborough bring to the BBC to show off the benefits of colour television?

The programme was Pot Black, and it is credited with the game's boom in the 1980s.

Attenborough influenced which change to tennis equipment in 1986?

White balls were hard to see on colour television, so the game changed to suit the cameras.

Attenborough commissioned a 13-part 1969 series on Western art to show off UHF colour. Who presented it?

Civilisation became the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries that BBC insiders nicknamed 'sledgehammer' projects.

Which comedy series was among the programmes Attenborough commissioned for BBC Two?

His schedule also included Call My Bluff, The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Money Programme.

Which broadcaster's job application to present on BBC Two did Attenborough turn down?

He later explained the channel already had an Irish announcer and two would have 'looked ridiculous'.

In which year was Life on Earth first broadcast?

It launched a strand of nine authored 'Life' series spanning three decades.

The BBC co-produced Life on Earth with which American company?

The scale of the project meant the BBC needed a partner before production could begin in 1976.

Which 1984 series, built around the theme of ecology, followed Life on Earth?

It looked at how living things adapt to their environments and sold hugely for the BBC abroad.

Which 1990 series on animal behaviour completed Attenborough's original 1979-1990 trilogy?

It examined animal behaviour through the different stages of life.

Which 1993 series was the first television series to survey the natural history of Antarctica?

Alastair Fothergill produced it; the two later teamed up again for The Blue Planet and Frozen Planet.

What technique let The Private Life of Plants (1995) show plants as dynamic organisms?

Producers had worried about filling hours of television with essentially immobile subjects; the series won a Peabody Award.

Life in Cold Blood (2008) completed Attenborough's survey of terrestrial life by covering which animals?

The nine series were then boxed together in a DVD encyclopaedia called Life on Land.

How many episodes of Wildlife on One did Attenborough narrate between 1977 and 2005?

At its peak the BBC One series drew eight to ten million viewers a week.

Which animals starred in the 1987 episode voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers?

The episode was 'Meerkats United', from Wildlife on One.

Which producer made The Blue Planet (2001) and asked Attenborough to narrate rather than present?

He decided speaking to camera through diving gear was impractical, so the series has no on-screen presenter.

Planet Earth (2006) was the first BBC wildlife series shot in what format?

It was the biggest nature documentary ever made for television at the time.

Who composed the main theme for Planet Earth II (2016)?

Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter for the sequel a decade after the original.

Blue Planet II (2017) is credited with triggering lasting public attention to which issue?

Its 14.1 million viewers made it the highest-rated UK broadcast of 2017.

Attenborough's 2019 series Our Planet was made for which streaming service?

It put human damage to the environment front and centre rather than saving it for a closing section.

Flying Monsters 3D, Attenborough's first Sky 3D film, was about which creatures?

It debuted on Christmas Day 2010, followed a year later by The Penguin King 3D.

A polar research ship was named RRS Sir David Attenborough after a poll favoured which name?

The public's choice survived on one of the ship's sub-sea research vehicles, named 'Boaty'.

What is the title of Attenborough's 2002 autobiography?

It was revised in 2009 and is one of several of his books he narrates himself as an audiobook.

Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after Attenborough, is what kind of organism?

It has one of the largest pitchers of any carnivorous plant; a hawkweed from the Brecon Beacons also bears his name.

Zaglossus attenboroughi is one of only four species of which egg-laying mammal?

It joins a lizard, a bat, several frogs and a gnatcatcher among the vertebrates that carry his name.

The fossil fish Materpiscis attenboroughi is believed to be the earliest organism capable of what?

Attenborough had filmed at the Western Australian site for Life on Earth decades before the 2008 discovery.

The 560-million-year-old fossil Auroralumina attenboroughii is thought to be the first animal what?

The find pushes the origin of animal predation deep into the Ediacaran, long before the Cambrian explosion.

What was the topic of Attenborough's 1973 Royal Institution Christmas Lecture?

The invitation came the same year he made Eastwards with Attenborough, his first series in colour.

Attenborough attended the 2021 COP26 climate conference under what official title?

He told the opening ceremony that humans were 'the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth'.

The Attenborough Studio opened in 2009 inside which London institution?

It forms part of the museum's Darwin Centre development.

A 2006 poll of favourite Attenborough moments was won by a clip of which bird's mimicry?

The Life of Birds footage shows the bird imitating camera shutters and chainsaws.

In 2012 Sir Peter Blake put Attenborough on a new version of which famous album cover?

Blake reworked his own 1967 collage to celebrate British cultural figures of his lifetime.

Which toy company changed its stated age range to '4–100+' to mark Attenborough's 100th birthday?

The BBC marked the day by announcing he would narrate Blue Planet III.

Which title did the 2020 film described as Attenborough's 'witness statement' carry?

In it he urges viewers to eat less meat, saying the planet cannot support billions of meat-eaters.

During the Second World War, Attenborough's parents fostered two Jewish refugee girls from which country?

One of them, Marianne, gave him the piece of amber that inspired an episode of Natural World sixty years later.

Who accepted the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication on Attenborough's behalf?

The Starmus co-founder and Queen guitarist collected it at Starmus VII in Bratislava.

Which parasitic worm does Attenborough cite when asked whether nature gives him faith in a creator?

He describes it boring through the eye of a boy on a West African riverbank and asks how a merciful God could create it.

With which two rock guitarists did Attenborough take part in a 2013 song opposing the badger cull?

He also endorsed Green MP Caroline Lucas in 2015 and once called himself 'a standard, boring left-wing liberal'.

Where was the gala concert held for Attenborough's 100th birthday on 8 May 2026?

Prince William attended, the crowd sang Happy Birthday and the BBC announced he would narrate Blue Planet III.

What kind of creature is Attenboroughnculus, a genus named to mark his 100th birthday?

He already had a pitcher plant, an echidna and a fossil fish among the many species carrying his name.

How many honorary degrees from British universities had Attenborough amassed by 2013, a record?

They include doctorates from Durham, Cambridge and Oxford, and he was made a Freeman of Leicester in 1990.

What surgery did Attenborough have in June 2013?

A double knee replacement followed in 2015; he joked that if he hewed coal he would gladly retire.

What does Attenborough's son Robert teach at the Australian National University?

His daughter Susan is a former primary school headmistress; his wife Jane died in 1997.

Attenborough is a patron of which UK charity advocating family planning and a smaller humanity?

He has said the human population tripled in his 60 years of making programmes and called for more debate on the issue.

Per Attenborough, who besides a madman thinks you can have infinite growth in a finite environment?

He has also argued that improving women's rights worldwide is an effective way to limit the birth rate.

Which magazine ranked Attenborough 23rd among Britain's most powerful left-wing figures in 2023?

It called him 'invaluable to green diplomacy', placing him above many elected politicians.

What did Attenborough say was being 'stolen' when he objected to AI clones of his narration?

He said he was 'profoundly disturbed' after a lifetime of trying to speak the truth.