Sir David Attenborough’s 100th Birthday: A century of inspiring the world

This aerial photograph taken this week, shows artists from the arts organisation Sand In Your Eye, working on a sand drawing of David Attenborough on Morecambe beach, northern England, in celebration of his 100th birthday today. Attenborough’s natural history series, such as “Life on Earth”, in which he had a famous encounter with mountain gorillas in Rwanda, have brought the most remote corners of the planet into living rooms worldwide. “He’s taken us all to places that we would never otherwise go.

That’s a huge gift,” botanist Sandra Knapp, director of research at London’s Natural History Museum, told AFP. The BBC is leading the celebration of the Briton’s centenary with a full week of programming dedicated to his life. Classic episodes of series including “Planet Earth II” and “Blue Planet II” are being reshown along with others such as “Life in the Freezer” and “Paradise Birds” available on the BBC’s iPlayer service.

The centrepiece will be a 90-minute live show on his birthday from London’s Royal Albert Hall. Knapp said Attenborough’s programmes had “expanded people’s horizons” and been an inspiration to many. Attenborough’s programmes succeeded in instilling in the public an unparallelled passion and wonder for the natural world, said Gouyon.

[paywall]

Attenborough’s lifelong passion for the natural world began as child, and he went on to study geology and zoology at university. Prince William, heir to the UK throne, has described him as a “national treasure”. Attenborough was also a firm favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who knighted him in 1985.

[/paywall]