Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Sir David: My memory’s failing
TV legend ‘struggling to remember’ the names of plants as he nears 91
SIR David Attenborough admits he is struggling to remember “proper names” as he approaches 91. Failing memory means it is taking longer than usual to write the script for his next BBC series, Blue Planet II. The broadcasting legend, whose birthday is on May 8, said he is coming to terms with the lapses but that he has “run into problems”. On a filming trip to Switzerland naturalist Sir David found he couldn’t recall the name of a particular brightly coloured plant species. He said: “There were these searing yellow fields and I can’t think of the damned name. “I wanted to say something about it but I couldn’t. It wasn’t until we got quite close to Geneva that I thought, ‘Of course, oilseed rape’.” Sir David also confessed to not using email despite employing pioneering TV technology, saying: “I’m not a big fan of electronic communication.” He will be seen on screen only twice in Blue Planet II, the same number of times that he appeared in last year’s Planet Earth II. Yet he remains committed to trying to save the planet through conservation and stressed that improvements were being made all the time. He finds much of his inspiration in letters he receives from children, saying: “It is my impression that, over the past 60 years, it is their belief that the natural world is their inheritance.”