In the UK, any elementary school student knows who David Attenborough is. His name is strongly associated with films about nature. Over the years, his voice sounded off-screen short half-hour episodes of various animals. Several generations of Britons have grown up on these educational films broadcast on the BBC from the seventy-seventh year of the last century to this day. But not only thanks to his voice, the name of David Attenborough became recognizable throughout the world, and he himself often appears in the frame. His presence in films makes the story more credible. But what does the wide audience know about the personal life of this naturalist, director, screenwriter, TV presenter and, by the way, a good writer? Did he make any other films? We will talk about this in our article.
Childhood
David Attenborough (David Frederick Attenborough) was born back in 1926 on the eighth of May. He saw the light in Aylworth (a district in the west of London). But the childhood of the future naturalist passed at the University College of Leicester, on a campus, the director of which was his father Frederick. David was the middle child in the family. His older brother Richard subsequently became a famous actor and director. The youngest in the family, John, also achieved success in life. He was destined to become the manager of the automobile company Alfa Romeo. As a child, David was fond of paleontology and geology. He even had his own “museum”, in which he represented fossils, stones and rock samples. During World War II, the family replenished with two girls. The parents of the three Attenborough brothers adopted Jewish refugees who escaped the Holocaust in Europe.
Education
Already David's childhood hobbies determined his training and subsequent career. Having received his primary education on the campus of the University College of Leicester, he entered the boys' gymnasium in Vigeston. There David Attenborough showed his talents and won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University, where he studied zoology and geology. He graduated from Claire College and received a bachelor of arts degree in science. When the young man was twenty-one years old, he went to serve in the army of the Royal Navy of Wales and Scotland. In 1950, having retired, David married. His chosen one was Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. With her, David lived a happy family life. The couple had two children: son Robert and daughter Susan. David was widowed in 1997. His son Robert followed in his father's footsteps. He teaches bioanthropology at the School of Archeology at National University of Australia at Canberra.
Work at the BBC
Immediately after the army, David Attenborough got a job at a publishing house that produced children's non-fiction. And there he learned one important thing: to talk about complex simple and accessible language. Already in 1952, he goes to work on the channel "BBC". At first he participated in radio broadcasts, and soon he will appear in the frame: in "Trends in the animal world." This TV show was filmed in a duet with Julian Huxley (a famous naturalist) at the London Zoo. Camouflage, mating rituals and aposematism, existing in the wild, were revealed so accessible and interesting that the public longed for a sequel. Therefore, in 1954, the BBC channel turned its attention to Attenborough in Sierra Leone (an African country), where a naturalist filmed a cycle of adventures with wild animals. A year later, a new series from Latin America was released. Then followed the filming expedition to Australia, to the islands of Komodo and Madagascar. In 1969-1972, a prominent director served as director of the Air Force program.
David Attenborough: Life on Earth
In the late seventies, the director conceived a truly epoch-making idea. Her working title was "Three E." The project was to maximize the story of evolution, ecology and ethology. However, the three series were released under different names: "Life on Earth", "The Living Planet" and "The Trials of Life". Although the director fully embodied his idea in these series of programs. In the Russian box office, all three series begin with the word "Life." In the Soviet Union, they began to be televised since 1986. The first “Life” with David Attenborough (1979) tells about the origin of protein creatures on planet Earth and their evolution. The second series tells about the main areas of distribution of animals, it is called "Living Planet". The third cycle is devoted to the problems of ethology, psychology, and animal behavior. It was filmed in 1990 and is called "Tests of Life." In these three series, the viewer is introduced into the course of the basic concepts of biology.
"Life" and its continuation
"Three E" were wildly successful not only in the UK: the "Air Force" channel sold them to many countries around the world. David Attenborough himself was not going to stop there. "Life" was continued in seven more series. In 1993, the scientist traveled to Antarctica. After that, the Life in the Freezer cycle was released. Next, went the series "Private life of plants", "... birds", "... mammals." The scientist also decided to reveal to the viewer the invisible existence of microorganisms in the series "Life in the Undergrowth". He told about reptiles and amphibians in Life with Cold Blood. The latest nature series was released in 2009. It is simply called Life, and is the sequel to the old 1984 film, The Living Planet. But we must pay tribute to this repetition: it is shot in high definition television standard. In total, all these ten cycles include more than two hundred and fifty series.
David Attenborough: filmography
A scientist and writer is not limited in his interests to biology alone. He repeatedly shot documentaries on other subjects. Among them, first of all, “Lost worlds - a life that has disappeared” should be noted. This series is dedicated to paleontology. In the cycle "First Eden" the scientist introduces the viewer into the course of human life at the dawn of civilization, and in the series "Eye of the Savage" he tries to show the art of primitive tribes from the inside. The ecology, David Attenborough has always been a champion, has not been left behind. The films The State of the Planet and The Whole Truth about Climate Change are dedicated to environmental issues.
Did David Attenborough retire?
The scientist and screenwriter announced his intention to retire, in connection with which the "Air Force" began to look for a replacement for the cult hero of nature series. True, Attenborough still has no worthy successors. But the director himself is in no hurry to retire. In 2009, he shot First Life, a film about the earliest types of animals. And in 2011, the premiere of the seven-episode series “Frozen Planet” took place. For the filming of this film, an elderly director even went to the North Pole. David Attenborough has won many honors. He is the Cavalier of the Royal Victorian Order and Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded the Order of Merit and Honor.