A Man for All Seasons

GHinterview He may be 82, but David Attenborough has lost none of his enthusiasm and passion for the natural world. In an exclusive interview, he tells Alison Jane Reid why he will never retire... A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS ain has begun to fall as I arrive series,’ he explains. ‘Only the BBC would in television, it just came along,’ he says. ‘I at Sir David Attenborough’s give you that time and support – that was always going to be a palaeontologist.’ 19th-century cottage in continuity of employment.’ David’s affinity for the natural world R Richmond. ‘Come in, come Though he admits he’s a technophobe, began early. His father, Frederick, was in,’ he says, ushering me into a sitting David is clearly passionate about David principal at University College Leicester room littered with books and his beloved Attenborough’s Life On Land – a new set and his mother, Mary, was a linguist – fossils. The famously hushed yet excitable of DVDs that includes six series of the a rather intrepid girl who took herself voice is as hypnotic as ever, and I feel a famous Life documentaries arranged off to Bologna University in the years little overwhelmed – Attenborough’s to form an interactive encyclopaedia. before women even had the vote. ‘It was programmes have done more to connect Viewers will be able to look up a certain amazing for an English girl to go to an us to the natural world than anything else. species and call up the relevant footage Italian university in 1912 – quite how she At the pinnacle of his achievements are on to the screen at the click of a button. got there I don’t know,’ he says. The the nine series of his celebrated BBC ‘Life’ ‘It’s very exciting,’ he says. ‘It will be a young David grew up in an atmosphere documentaries – from Life On Earth in great way to make the natural world of intellectual curiosity, roaming the 1979 to Life In Cold Blood, aired this year. more accessible to modern audiences.’ Leicestershire countryside for fossils. Collectively, they form a survey of all Aside from an obvious fervour for what ‘I would get on my bicycle and not come terrestrial life and on their own would he does, the wonderful thing about David back until the evening. Sometimes I secure his position as one of the most is that, in an age obsessed with celebrity, would go off for two weeks and go youth remarkable cultural historians of our times. he isn’t the least bit interested in the hostelling, which was marvellous!’ ▲ PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID ELLIS DAVID PHOTOGRAPH: ‘It’s taken 20 years to complete the razzmatazz. ‘I didn’t plan to have a career He paints a picture of Britain before www.allaboutyou.com/goodhousekeeping November 2008 • GH 47 GHinterview World War II as a time of both austerity Talking to the and freedom – something sadly missing animals (clockwise from right): with a for today’s children. Both his parents had Scarlet Macau in an acute social conscience: ‘I remember 1998 for The Life Of seeing my mother on her hands and Birds; walking with King Penguins in knees scrubbing Evington Hall – a 1984 for The Living disused house – in order to accommodate Planet: The Frozen 150 refugee kids. When war broke out World; feeding Orang-utans in 1982 they also took in two Jewish girls. “Now you’ve got two sisters”, they said to me.’ David is certainly a product of those times, and the closest thing we have to a modern renaissance figure. He is urbane and modest, with a wicked sense of humour. ‘For me, there has never been anything funnier than Porridge or Monty Python, and I enjoyed The Office. But there isn’t much else that makes me laugh,’ he says. Venturing on to more personal ground, I ask David about his adored wife Jane. They were married for 48 years until her death in 1997 while he was away on a trip, which he has talked about with regret. I ask him if it was love at first sight? ‘Come on, at 18 or 19, isn’t it always love at first sight? I mean, it’s one every 10 days isn’t it?’ he laughs. Perhaps the only time he is in the least bit guarded during our interview is in speaking about his family. He met Jane at Leicester University when she was taking a degree in social sciences, and they married in 1950. Like any I don’t know what I couple starting out, money was tight. ❛ David’s first job paid the princely sum of would do if I stopped. £350 a year, and their first home was a I would just go to seed Cambridge to take a degree in Natural tiny house in Chelsea. ‘It leaked like a Sciences. He describes the atmosphere ❜ sieve,’ he recalls. ‘London was just days, but insists it isn’t a legacy from his as wonderful, but ‘shell-shocked’ following recovering from being bombed. So when adventures. ‘Human beings are more the aftermath of war. ‘My overwhelming our son Robert was born, we moved to deadly than any animal,’ he says, adding feeling was one of privilege. I was lucky Richmond.’ Robert is now a senior lecturer the only time he has ever felt frightened to escape active service – many of my in Bioanthropology at the School of was when he was confronted by a drunken fellow students had piloted fighter planes Archaeology and Anthropology at the soldier in the Congo. ‘When they’ve got a and commanded destroyers.’ Australian National University in Canberra. gun, don’t like the look on your face and After leaving Cambridge he was Robert’s younger sister, Susan, is a retired don’t speak your language – that’s the conscripted to do National Service as a primary school head, living in Surrey. time to get apprehensive.’ Navy officer. ‘It was a bit like a Carry On So did he find it hard being away from I’d quite like to be with Attenborough film. I went off to Pembrokeshire and his family so much? ‘Well, I was only if I was in a dangerous situation – I’m The Firth of Forth. Because I had a science away for three months of the year – it sure he would negotiate his way out of degree, I became an instructor and taught wasn’t as much as a pilot or a sea captain,’ trouble. He was 13 when war broke out, navigation and meteorology. It was great. he says. ‘They weren’t trips for children, and he conjures up an intense picture of You weren’t shooting at anyone and no-one and Jane wouldn’t have wanted to come as life at the time. While his elder brother was shooting at you. The war was over. just a passenger, so they always stayed Richard won the prestigious Leverhulme But after a couple of years, I wanted to at home. The important thing was making Scholarship, went to RADA and then on go out and earn a living.’ the film – my family understood that.’ to glory as an actor and film director, After a brief – and, he says, dull – stint ▲ PHOTOGRAPHS: BBC, REX BBC, PHOTOGRAPHS: David walks with a slight limp these David won a scholarship to Clare College editing children’s science books, he applied www.allaboutyou.com/goodhousekeeping November 2008 • GH 49 GHinterview for a job as a BBC radio producer. He Family ties didn’t get it, but several weeks later he (clockwise from right): received a letter inviting him to go and with brother work at Alexandra Palace in ‘this new Richard in thing called television’. The year was 2006; at a book awards 1952 and, like most Britons at the time, with daughter he didn’t own a television. ‘But I thought Susan in 2003; it sounded like fun. In those days, they at home with Robert and were actually trying to persuade people Susan in 1962 to join television!’ After a decade producing programmes, David was made controller of the brand new BBC Two and was even responsible for the introduction of colour television. ‘It was a marvellous privilege. I was given several million pounds of budget with the remit to set up an entirely new network,’ he recalls. (In case you didn’t know, he also gave us Match Of The Day, televised snooker and The Likely Lads.) Even at 82, David’s work is still a huge part of his life and, fortunately for us, he has no intention of retiring – ever. ‘If you have a paid job with a pension, I suppose you might retire. But if, like me, you’re freelance and want to go on working, then you just do! I don’t know what I’d do if I stopped,’ he says pausing to contemplate the idea. ‘I would just go to seed.’ As if to illustrate his point, last night he was in Aberdeen to receive out on? ‘Well, bearing in mind that there ‘another honorary degree and give a are something like six billion species, I lecture,’ obviously delighted that he’s still certainly haven’t seen a millionth of in demand. He’s also thoroughly immersed them. I haven’t swum with a whale shark in his next project for the BBC – a of man on the environment. For the first and I haven’t been to Tibet. Those are documentary about Charles Darwin and time in the interview, he is sombre. ‘I am the two things I would have liked to do.’ as keen as anybody that we shouldn’t Passionate, courteous, a national In those days, they were lose the mountain gorilla or the giant treasure who can turn nature’s mysteries actually❛ trying to persuade panda, but it is really whole ecosystems into universal entertainment… As our we should be concerned about.

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