Naturalist and pioneer

Sir David Attenborough has inspired millions by bringing the natural world into our homes.

But thanks to a life marked by a tenacious desire to explore, innovate and enlighten, his impact is even more surprising than you might expect.

We look back at some of the incredible ways Sir David has helped shape our lives.

1954

Wildlife for the masses

Sir David Attenborough joined the BBC as a trainee in 1952, having only ever watched one television programme.

His early career included the high octane round-table debate, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? But the tenacious 28-year-old was seeking new ways to make films and a life outside the television studio. The result was the hit series ‘Zoo Quest,’ which combined live studio presentation with footage shot on location for the first time. It brought rare animals – including chimpanzees, pythons and birds of paradise – into viewers’ living rooms and proved wildlife programmes could attract big audiences.

1965

Civilisation – in colour!

We can’t attribute Western civilisation to Attenborough, but we can give him the credit for one of its greatest achievements: colour television.

As Controller of BBC Two, he oversaw the first ever-colour broadcasts in Europe, rushing to beat rival German broadcasters by three weeks. He then commissioned the critically-acclaimed series Civilisation, written and presented by art historian Kenneth Clark. The Ascent of Man, presented by humanist scientist Jacob Bronowski, soon followed. These landmark series helped inaugurate a new kind of television documentary, putting history, culture and science on screen in ways never seen before.

1969

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

By now BBC Director of Programmes, Attenborough continued to innovate and reinvent television – but this time in the world of comedy.

He commissioned Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a cult sketch show which made stars out of John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Gilliam. The show was a global phenomenon, inspiring generations of comedians around the world. In Britain, Python became part of the nation’s cultural DNA, encapsulating a recognisably British eccentricity and spawning popular catchphrases and figures of speech.

1975

Back to nature

Long before Bear Grylls slept in a camel carcass, Sir David was trekking through uncharted wilderness to film some of the remotest people on earth.

Freed from his role as a BBC executive, Attenborough went back to nature to become an explorer. He made a series of programmes about tribes, some so isolated it’s thought they hadn’t been contacted by Europeans before Sir David’s arrival. He immersed himself in their cultures, wearing nothing but a loin cloth while filming in the Solomon Islands. In showing us ways of life so different from our own, Sir David helped us understand both the diversity and universality of the human experience.

1979

Inventing epics

Now a staple of any self-respecting Brit’s television diet, Sir David helped invent the natural history documentary as we know it today.

In the late 1970s, he took inspiration from series like Civilisation and The Ascent of Man and travelled the globe to deliver his definitive take on the wonders of the natural world. A natural history programme of this scale and ambition had never been attempted before. The result was Life on Earth, a televisual feast which used stunning photography and innovative camera techniques to show animals in their natural habitats. It’s estimated that 500 million people watched the series worldwide.

1994

A rose by any other name…

While filming The Private Life of Plants, Sir David noticed the world’s largest flowering plant had quite a racy name – the Amorphophallus Titanum.

Instead, he gave it another name in his script – titum arum – coining the plant’s common name in the process. But as well as naming species, many plants and animals have been named after Sir David. They include a flightless beetle, a species of hawkweed found only in the Brecon Beacons and a long-necked dinosaur called the Attenborosaurus.

2001

Your first glimpse

Without the ambition and persistance of Attenborough and his collaborators, millions of us may never have seen some of the world’s rarest creatures.

It’s been a constant theme throughout his career, beginning with Zoo Quest in the 1950s, when he famously caught the elusive Komodo Dragon on film for the first time. But in 2001, we were given an insight into a strange new world, when Attenborough narrated The Blue Planet. The series introduced millions to the wonders of the deep sea and was the first time some species, including the hairy angler fish and the Dumbo octopus, were captured on film.

2015

Pushing boundaries

From colour broadcasts to 3D television, Sir David has always been at the forefront of pioneering technology in broadcasting.

In 2015, he dived 1,000ft in a submersible off the Australian coast to film previously unseen parts of the Great Barrier Reef, breaking the record for the deepest ever dive on the reef. He also recently collaborated with the Natural History Museum on a virtual reality project, and is filming his next BBC series – Planet Earth II – in Ultra HD. Next time you tune into a major Attenborough documentary, you can be pretty sure you’re witnessing a breakthrough in future broadcasting technology.===Sir David undertaking his record-breaking dive on the reef.

2015

Saving the world

Sir David has always said he didn’t start making programmes with conservation in mind – he simply enjoyed observing the natural world.

But as time passed, he became aware that the animals and habitats he was filming were under threat. He’s authored documentaries which overtly tackle environmental issues but prefers a subtler approach, showcasing the natural world in the hope we might be inspired to preserve it. Counting President Obama among his biggest admirers, Sir David has done more than almost any other person to help millions of us understand and appreciate the wonders of the world around us.