55 Fun Facts About David Attenborough

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

Isleworth, Middlesex — David Attenborough was born there on 8 May 1926, the middle of three brothers; Isleworth is now part of the London Borough of Hounslow.

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

University College, Leicester — Attenborough's father Frederick was its principal, and the family lived in College House on the campus, where David roamed the 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?

Alfa Romeo — John Attenborough, the youngest of the three brothers, spent his career in the motor trade and became a senior executive at Alfa Romeo.

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

Newts — aged about eleven, Attenborough sold them to the university zoology department for threepence each, netting them from a pond beside the 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?

Clare College — Attenborough went up to Clare, Cambridge, in 1945 and read geology and zoology for a natural sciences degree.

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

Royal Navy — Attenborough served two years' national service from 1947, posted to North Wales and the Firth of Forth rather than anywhere exotic.

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

His teeth were thought too big — the verdict came from Mary Adams, head of the BBC's Talks department, so he began behind the camera as a producer.

Which 1954 series launched Attenborough's presenting career?

Zoo Quest followed animal-collecting expeditions for London Zoo; Attenborough only ended up in front of the camera because the planned presenter fell ill.

Which London Zoo section did Zoo Quest's original presenter, Jack Lester, curate?

The reptile house — Jack Lester was London Zoo's curator of reptiles; he and Attenborough had met making Animal Patterns, a studio series that borrowed zoo animals.

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

Social anthropology — he enrolled for the degree at the London School of Economics but never finished it, because the BBC lured him back to run BBC Two.

In which year did Attenborough become Controller of BBC Two?

1965 — Attenborough became Controller of BBC Two in March that year, insisting on a contract clause that let him keep making occasional programmes.

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?

Snooker — Attenborough commissioned Pot Black in 1969 because the coloured balls showed off colour television; the series fed snooker's 1980s boom.

Attenborough influenced which change to tennis equipment in 1986?

Yellow balls — white balls were hard to follow on colour television, which Attenborough's BBC Two had brought to Wimbledon in 1967; Wimbledon adopted yellow balls in 1986.

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 1973 history-of-science series did Attenborough commission as BBC Two's counterpart to Civilisation?

The Ascent of Man — Attenborough commissioned Jacob Bronowski's 13-part history of science, broadcast in 1973 as BBC Two's scientific counterpart to Civilisation.

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

Terry Wogan — Attenborough rejected the young Irishman's application, later explaining that BBC Two already had one Irish announcer and two 'would have looked ridiculous'.

In which year was Life on Earth first broadcast?

1979's Life on Earth launched a body of work that became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary makers.

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

Warner Communications — Life on Earth was made by the BBC in association with Warner Bros. Television and Reiner Moritz Productions, the partners it needed before filming began in 1976.

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

The Living Planet (1984) — the sequel to Life on Earth looked at how living things adapt to their environments, habitat by habitat, and was a major BBC export.

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

The Trials of Life (1990) — the trilogy's closing series followed animal behaviour through the stages of life, from birth to raising young, across twelve episodes.

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

Life in the Freezer (1993) — the six-part series was the first television survey of Antarctica's natural history, from emperor penguins to the elephant seals of South Georgia.

Which technique let Attenborough's The Private Life of Plants (1995), a Peabody winner, show plants as dynamic organisms?

Time-lapse photography sped up the plants' growth; producers had worried about filling hours of television with essentially immobile subjects, and the series won a Peabody Award.

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

Reptiles and amphibians — Life in Cold Blood (2008) was the last of Attenborough's nine Life series, closing his survey of life on land, from crocodiles to chameleons.

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

253 — Wildlife on One ran on BBC One from 1977 to 2005 and Attenborough narrated 253 episodes; at its peak it 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?

Alastair Fothergill — the series producer decided that talking to camera through diving gear was impractical, so The Blue Planet has no on-screen presenter.

Planet Earth (2006), then the biggest nature documentary ever made for television, was the first BBC wildlife series shot in what format?

High definition — Planet Earth (2006) was the first BBC wildlife series shot in HD, filmed over five years in more than 60 countries.

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

Hans Zimmer — he composed the Planet Earth II theme with Jacob Shea and Jasha Klebe of Bleeding Fingers Music; Attenborough returned as narrator a decade after the original.

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

Plastic pollution — the 'Blue Planet effect' followed the series' footage of plastic debris harming sea life; its 14.1 million viewers made it the UK's most-watched programme of 2017.

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

Netflix — Our Planet (2019) was made by Silverback Films for the streaming service and put human damage to the environment front and centre.

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

Pterosaurs — Flying Monsters 3D, which debuted on Sky 3D on Christmas Day 2010, traced the flying reptiles from the Triassic to their extinction.

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

Boaty McBoatface — the 2016 online poll's runaway winner was overruled for the ship itself, but the name survived on one of its autonomous submersibles.

What is the title of Attenborough's 2002 autobiography?

Life on Air — Attenborough's 2002 memoir, revised in 2009, is one of several of his books he has read 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?

Echidna — Zaglossus attenboroughi, the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea's Cyclops Mountains, was filmed alive for the first time in 2023; a lizard, a bat and several frogs also carry his name.

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

Internal fertilisation — Materpiscis, 'mother fish', was found at Western Australia's Gogo site with an embryo and umbilical cord, the oldest known live birth; Attenborough had filmed there for Life on Earth.

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 Language of Animals — Attenborough gave the 1973 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on animal communication, shortly after leaving BBC management to return to programme-making.

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

People's Advocate — the UK government gave Attenborough that title for COP26 in Glasgow, where he told the opening ceremony humans were 'the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth'.

The Attenborough Studio opened in 2009 inside which London institution?

The Natural History Museum — the Attenborough Studio is part of the museum's Darwin Centre, whose second phase opened in 2009.

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

The superb lyrebird — the Life of Birds (1998) footage of it mimicking camera shutters, car alarms and chainsaws topped a 2006 poll of favourite Attenborough moments.

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

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band — for his 80th birthday in 2012, Peter Blake reworked his 1967 Beatles collage with British cultural figures of his lifetime, Attenborough among them.

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

A Life on Our Planet has him urging 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?

Germany — Helga and Irene Bejach, Jewish sisters from Berlin, came to the Attenboroughs in Leicester through the Kindertransport in 1939 and were raised alongside the three brothers.

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

Onchocerca volvulus — the river-blindness worm; Attenborough describes it boring through the eye of a child 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?

Brian May and Slash were joined by Attenborough on a song dedicated to badgers, opposing the British government's cull policy; he has also endorsed Green MP Caroline Lucas.

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

32 — by 2013 Attenborough held 32 honorary degrees from British universities, more than anyone else; they include doctorates from Durham, Cambridge and Oxford.

What surgery did Attenborough have in June 2013?

A pacemaker fitted in June 2013 was followed by a double knee replacement in 2015; he joked that if he hewed coal he would gladly retire.

Which subject has Attenborough's son Robert taught at the Australian National University?

Bioanthropology — Robert Attenborough was a senior lecturer in the subject at the Australian National University in Canberra; his sister Susan is a former primary-school headmistress.

Attenborough is a patron of which charity campaigning for a sustainable human population?

Population Matters advocates family planning, sustainable consumption and a sustainable human population; Attenborough has said the population tripled in his 60 years of making programmes.

According to Attenborough, anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is 'either a madman or' what?

An economist, in his line; he has also argued that improving women's rights worldwide is an effective way to limit the birth rate.

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

His identity — in November 2024 Attenborough said he was 'profoundly disturbed' that, after a lifetime trying to speak the truth, his identity was being stolen by AI voice clones.