BBC politics kept me abroad, says Sir David
SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH has said “internal BBC politics” resulted in him spending much of his career documenting wildlife abroad rather than in the British Isles.
The broadcaster and naturalist, 96, said that soon after joining the corporation in 1952 he was offered Africa as his area of specialism, which suited him “down to the ground”.
He is now presenting a five-part series called Wild Isles which aims to shine a light on the natural world closer to home.
Speaking to presenter Chris Packham on Winterwatch, he added: “I joined [the BBC] in 1952, and television was restricted to London. Bristol had a natural history unit on the radio but it didn’t have television. So we had a great meeting and they said: ‘Look here, you’re doing natural history and I think we should come to some agreement on this, because when television comes here we want to do natural history television. Tell you what, we’ll do British natural history, and you can do all this stuff in Africa.’
“And I said, ‘That suits me down to the ground,’ so this is a great ambition fulfilled.”
Wild Isles will have an introductory episode explaining why Britain and Ireland are globally important for nature.
The remaining four hour-long episodes will celebrate Britain’s four key habitats – woodlands, grasslands, freshwater and marine.
Sir David also addressed the lack of results on climate-change policies, saying: “The first half we’ve done. The United Nations, world leaders, people saying the right things, doing the right things, but I don’t see the results.
“I have no idea [what is going to happen].
“We have to keep the pressure on, whether we’re winning or losing. And I think that we are. Lots of people are.”