From his home, Attenborough shows viewers ‘A Perfect Planet’
Sir David Attenborough is a globetrotter, discovering far-flung lands and exotic species for TV audiences since the 1950s. The pandemic may have kept him at home for much of 2020, but it hasn’t stopped the legendary host from continuing his work to get the world to act on climate change.
Attenborough recorded one of his trademark voiceovers — warm, calm and full of contagious fascination for the natural world — for the new BBC and Discovery series “A Perfect Planet,” which arrives in early January.
The musical soundtrack — accompanying anything from thousands of flamingos nesting in the hostile salt lakes of Central Africa to Christmas Island’s red crabs migrating from the forest to the Indian Ocean — was also recorded at a distance.
The premise of the series is a celebration of why Earth is such the ideal environment for so many different species to live and co-exist. Shot in 31 countries, it took 4 years and six volcanic eruptions to collect up-close footage that includes river turtles laying eggs in the Amazon’s sand bars, brown bears fishing for salmon in Russia and the swinging gibbons of South East Asia’s tropical forests.
Different episodes look at the essential roles played by the sun, ocean, volcanoes, weather and of course, humans.
Everything Attenborough does addresses the climate crisis and what people can do, and what they should stop doing, to help save this delicate ecosystem.
Initially disappointed the United Nations Climate Change Conference was postponed until next year, the presenter and activist hopes “A Perfect Planet” will give the event a “push.”
“It’s very important to give people solutions. I think otherwise people stick their head in the sand. You need to tell them what they can do to help turn things around,” said Fothergill, who is a long-time Attenborough collaborator.