Not to be missed! Sir David Attenborough, 60 years in the wild

Like many of my colleagues in the BBC I've been lucky enough to work with the man who is known to millions as Mr Wildlife, the voice of God, Sir David Attenborough. He has inspired generations of wildlife filmmakers, conservationists and biologists and at 86 years old shows no signs of slowing down - for which we are all immensely grateful. So how best to mark his 60 years in the wild?

"The challenge was to do something different with the man who has been everywhere and done everything. Early discussions with David and Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill made it clear that it was David’s unique personal experience that would be the key; he has travelled more widely than almost anyone else before him and seen the wonders of the natural world before they were changed forever." - Miles Barton, Series Producer

In this new series Sir David Attenborough gives his unique perspective on over half a century of innovation in wildlife filmmaking - developments that have brought ever more breathtaking and intimate images of wildlife to our television screens, changing our view of life on the planet forever. He revisits key places and events in his filming career, reminisces with his old photos and reflects on memorable wildlife footage - including him catching a komodo dragon and swimming with dolphins. Returning to his old haunts in Borneo, he recalls the challenges of filming in a bat cave and shows how with modern technology we can now see in the dark. 

In the clip below you can still see the boyish enthusiasm and passion that first endeared him to the British audience, and eventually led him to be the voice of wildlife around the world. Here he reveals how a technique called imprinting has been used to allow film crews to fly with the birds.

CATCHING A DRAGON

David Attenborough takes us back to one of his first TV series 'Zoo Quest', and shows us how he used sticks and stones to catch a Komodo dragon.



THE EXPLORER

I visited the now famous Gomantong caves in Borneo a few weeks ago, treading the boardwalk with a dozen other tourists. It's now hard to imagine just how remote this must have seemed when Sir David first filmed here in 1972. Few people outside of Borneo had ever seen such a wonder.

"In 1972 in a Goamantong cave he memorably choked at the top of a heap of guano amidst a cloud of swirling bats and 40 years later he discovered that the smell was just as potent... It was a long, hard day's filming with both temperature and humidity in the mid-eighties which didn’t seem to affect our presenter (also in his mid-eighties), as much as the rest of us. It concluded with a shot of an overheated Attenborough drinking cold water in thermalvision, which will hopefully join that crowded pantheon of memorable Attenborough moments." - Miles Barton, Series Producer

Throughout his life Sir David has been a pioneer and an explorer, revealing wild places and wild behaviour for the first time.



WALKING WITH THE MOA

In this clip David reveals some of the CGI magic that has allowed him to walk with extinct creatures including the Giant Moa as seen in the Life of Birds. I had the pleasure of recreating T-rex in a similar way when I filmed with David for Life in Cold Blood.