DOWN TO EARTH
Sir David’s wise advice
He’s been making mustwatch television for more than 60 years, but Sir David Attenborough has absolutely no plans to retire – well, unless the world decides they’ve had enough of him.
“When people want me to do things, I do things,” the 93-year-old tells. “If they don’t want me to do it, I’ve retired.
“I have the greatest job in the world, you know. What a privileged time I’ve had… better than sitting in the corner knitting.”
With his latest series, A Life on Our Planet, due to be released on streaming giant Netflix, David’s been in an unusually reflective mood.
And there’s a lot to reflect on. He’s seen it all – literally. David’s been to almost every corner of the planet to document its unique, weird and wonderful flora and fauna. It’s a passion that’s seen the vast majority of his own life catalogued in his hundreds of films about Earth.
“I have had the most extraordinary life. It’s only now that I appreciate how extraordinary. Virtue is not involved; I just arrived at the right time.
“I’ve been lucky enough to spend my life exploring the wild places on the planet and
I’ve travelled to every part of the globe. In truth, I couldn’t imagine living my life any other way.”
David’s life-long love of planet Earth began when he was just eight years old. The middle son of three – older brother Richard became a hugely successful actor and director, and youngest John an executive at a luxury car brand – a young David was naturally interested in the living world around him, spending his days collecting stones and fossils. But it was when his father gave him a pet salamander for his eighth birthday that something lit up inside.
“They’re absolutely magical things,” he recalls. “If you’ve never seen one before, it’s jet black with sulphur spots on it. They are quite innocuous and quite slow moving… I had a little aquarium I turned into a vivarium with moss and stones.”
After that, his entrepreneurial streak emerged when he realised the zoology department at his father’s university needed newts. He collected and sold them for a thruppence each – handily forgetting to mention he was scooping them out of a pond metres away from the campus.
He won a scholarship to Cambridge to study geology and zoology, served in the Navy, married his love Jane Oriel – with whom he has two children, Robert and Susan − and then finally, most notably, David embarked on his broadcasting career at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The rest, as they say, is history.
He got his big break in 1954 on Zoo Quest, a programme about animal collecting – David shudders at the thought now. The host got sick, and thanks to his zoology background, the then 28-year-old was called up.
“When I first started making natural history films – I’m almost ashamed of it now, but there’s no point in denying it – I was making a film about the London Zoo, which was collecting animals. Rare animals? Oh good, let’s scrag it back to London. You wouldn’t dream of doing that now.”
He’s filmed more than 600 species, visited every continent, and seen the rise of television and technology which, when they were eventually combined, culminated in one of the most-watched series in the world, Planet Earth.
But his soaring success came at a price, he admits.
“If I do have regrets, it is that when my children were young, I was away for three months at a time,” he says.
“If you have a child who is six or eight and you miss three months of his or her life, it’s irreplaceable − you miss something.”
David always embarked on his adventures without Jane or the kids – and it was in 1997, when he was here in New Zealand, that he received the heartbreaking call that his wife of 47 years had suffered a brain haemorrhage. He rushed back to the UK, making it home just in time to say goodbye.
After that, work was his
saviour, as was spending time with Robert, himself a lecturer in anthropology at his father’s alma mater in Cambridge, and Susan, a former headmistress.
So, what’s his best piece of wisdom after decades of conservationism? Be considerate, live modestly and be respectful of Mother Nature − advice that really couldn’t be more relevant in today’s society.
“Just be modest. Don’t waste. Don’t waste electricity. Don’t waste food. And don’t waste time.”