David Attenborough

Levison Wood's tips for budding explorers

Levison Wood crossing the Caucuses (Credit: Simon Buxton)

You can’t just get up one morning and decide to be an explorer.

Well, you can, but you’re not going to get on television with that attitude. You’ve got to jump through lots of hoops to get there and it’s not just a case of how many countries you’ve been to. You don’t have to join the Army to get into TV, but I think it’s good to have some level of expertise or niche knowledge. Once you’re an expert in anything, in any industry, people will come to you. That’s where you want to be.

Sir David Attenborough to become virtual hologram for Sky

In a world first, museum-goers will get special hands-on access to rare objects, while a 3D hologram of Attenborough will offer his own insight on each specimen in a one-on-one interactive experience.

He will be transformed into a hologram and will guide participants to virtually hold and handle fossils, bringing the objects to life. 

This virtual technology will allow people to hold up, peer inside, tilt and look more closely at the historic objects, which include fossils, bones and skulls from the museum’s world-famous collection.

Alastair Fothergill: How can you possibly care about the natural world if you’ve never seen it?

The Hunt

Like an entire generation of wildlife film-makers, Alastair Fothergill was drawn to television by David Attenborough. His 1979 series, Life on Earth, showed the young Fothergill that natural history programming was “a good way to be paid to be near animals”.

Fothergill, who was recently made a Fellow of the RTS, spent almost three decades at the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU). This included a five-year stint as head of department, when he landed several global hits, including The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.

Sir David Attenborough returns to present Blue Planet II

The successor to the award-winning Blue Planet from BBC Studios Natural History Unit follows the huge success of last year's Planet Earth II, also presented by Attenborough.

The seven-part documentary series has been four years in the making, with a team of wildlife filmmakers exploring the hidden depths of the earth's oceans for the return of the unique visual experience.

Sir David Attenborough said he was "truly thrilled to be joining this new exploration of the underwater worlds which cover most of our planet, yet are still its least known.”

The BBC needs to broaden its range, says Sir David Attenborough

(Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

It’s a rare that two thoroughgoing BBC men are seen smiling, let alone laughing, inside the precincts of the House of Commons. When senior BBC people visit Parliament, they are invariably greeted by sceptical MPs, keen to give them a rough time. 

The atmosphere could not have been more different when, last month, the RTS invited Andrew Marr and Sir David Attenborough to hold a conversation at the Commons.  

Sir David Attenborough: BBC licence fee is the biggest possible bargain in Britain

David Attenborough speaking to the RTS (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian)

Speaking to the RTS All Party Parliamentary Group in the House of Commons the veteran natural history broadcaster said that today’s BBC commissioners were reluctant to back lengthy documentaries dealing with serious topics.

“One of the things which BBC Two did very well was to make serious programmes on serious subjects – 13 part series. That requires three years. There’s a great reluctance elsewhere to do those sorts of programmes…

“Today there is a tendency to do shorter series” He added to audience laughter: “’Today we present a new two-part series.’”

BBC reveals slate of original Natural History docs

The schedule includes BBC One's Attenborough And The Giant Sea Dragon, a one-off special exploring Britain's Jurassic Coast and the recent discovery of gigantic fossils embedded in a cliff face.

Natural history icon Sir David Attenborough will use the latest scanning techniques and 3D imaging to bring back to life the ichthyosaur, and reveal more about the ocean predator's way of life.