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by Alexander G Rubio  Sir David Attenborough I must have been something like five or six years old, and I couldn't understand why everyone was laughing. Not being avid television viewers they still hadn't upgraded to a colour TV. The reason the telly was turned on that evening was that NRK (Norsk Rikskringkasting), the Norwegian public broadcaster, was about to air the first episode of "Life on Earth", Sir David Attenborough's natural history series produced by the BBC. Prior to this program, which charted the origins of life on earth and its individual place in present day nature, I had, like most young boys been somewhat fascinated by nature and science, but it was on the level of "T-Rex rules!" (the dino, not the band; that was more the domain of my older sister). But watching the splendour and colour of nature, in glorious black and white, that evening was something akin to a revelation. From the diaries - whataboutbob
For the first time I got an inkling how the individual parts of nature were linked together like cogs in a gigantic living machine. While it might turn some people to belief in a higher power and architect of the universe, it was the beginning of the end of my own religious faith. Nature itself was by far more complex and grand (and on occasion plain funny) than any creator I could conceive of.
 Over the years I tried to catch all of Sir David Attenborough's programs and series, one of my favourite being "The First Eden", his 1987 series on Mediterranean nature and man. Here was science, culture and history organically intertwined into one of the finest examples of liberal education ever produced. To say that he influenced me, would be something of an understatement. And though I didn't end up the scientist I thought I would become throughout my years in school, he's probably partly to blame for something very central to my life and work today, my language. Though English was the common denominator at home when I as growing up (my mother spoke no Spanish, and my father, to this day, speaks a Norwegian few Norwegians would recognise as such), none in my family spoke with anything like a cut glass Queen's English. But as long as I can remember I have. Trying to figure out in later years where I picked it up, I've come to the conclusion it must have been to a great extent Sir David's doing. From such stuff are our personalities made. Though I didn't find out until recently, as Controller of BBC2 in the 60s, he originated the idea for another landmark documentary series that now and then makes television something more than an outlet for advertisement and "reality-TV", Lord Kenneth Clark's "Civilisation" (watch it, trust me, and make your kids watch it). Lately I had been re-watching the 1984 series "The Living Planet". And earlier today, when I made a search on Google on Attenborough, I discovered that the man turned 80 just a couple of days ago, on Monday the 8th of May, which gave me the perfect pretext to write this small tribute.
It seems he's celebrating his birthday among the Giant tortoises of the Galapagos islands, filming his new series on reptiles and amphibians, "Life in Cold Blood", to be aired in 2008. The man is a force of nature. Happy birthday, Sir David! This article is also available at Bitsofnews.com. |
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Sir David Attenborough: Nature's perfect Gentleman turns 80 | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Sir David Attenborough: Nature's perfect Gentleman turns 80 | 15 comments (15 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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