We still need white men on TV to explain things, says Sir David
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH has suggested the BBC still needs “white men explaining things” on television.
The 92-year-old naturalist said it was often important on television to have a presenter “who knows about some- thing”, after being asked on Newsnight whether he agreed with comments from the head of BBC Four that the era of male presenters “telling you like it is” had passed.
Evan Davis, the Newsnight presenter, asked Sir David: “Cassian Harrison, the editor of BBC Four, said the BBC no longer wants TV shows in which white, middle-aged men stand up and explain things. I’m sure he didn’t have you in mind.”
Chuckling, Sir David replied: “I’m sure he did, because that’s what I do.
“I don’t think those days have passed, I personally think there’s a place for that sort of thing, Blue Planet got one of the biggest audiences of documentaries in a long time. On the other hand, I suppose he might say there wasn’t a lot seen of me.
“Which is absolutely true, and a very good thing.”
Sir David added that he thought that experts were needed to explain topics clearly: “There are some things that you do require. Like someone who knows about something, to tell you in terms which don’t have bogus illustrations.”
Mr Harrison told the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August: “There’s a mode of programming that involves a presenter, usually white, middle-aged and male, standing on a hill and ‘telling you like it is’. We all recognise the era of that has passed.”
The BBC has pledged to make its programmes less male-heavy after being widely criticised for its pay report, in which most of the highest-earning stars were men.
In April, the broadcaster promised that half of the expert voices heard on news and current affairs programmes would be women by next year. They also aim to have an equal number of male and female expert contributors to topical shows, by the same time.
The interview with Sir David marks the release of his new book, Life On Earth, and he also discussed allegations of TV trickery in nature broadcasting. He claims it is sometimes useful to use captive animals to illustrate scientific points. Sir David said if programmes illustrate their stories with “a polar bear that happened to have been born in a zoo, and you could never get that in the wild without risking the polar bear’s life or indeed your own – then that’s biology. That’s perfectly fair”.