David Attenborough’s 99th Birthday: 9 Surprising Facts ” The Blue Planet .” and ” Life on Earth ” Attenborough’s career spans eight decades. He has written, narrated and presented some of the world’s most watched nature documentaries.” The Blue Planet .”is one example.
1. Attenborough, agnostic.
Attenborough stated on BBC Radio 4 that he is an agnostic but does not exclude the existence of deities. “The broadcaster stated, “I don’t think an understanding and an acceptance of the 4 billion-year-long history of life is in any way inconsistent with a belief in a supreme being. And I am not so confident as to say that I am an atheist.”
2. Attenborough doesn’t care for rats.
Attenborough has been open in his dislike for rats. He says that they must be respected. He explains in an episode of BBC’s ” Life Stories ,” how his fear began while he was in a thatched village in Solomon Islands, during a storm. When he turned on his flashlight, a mouse ran along the bed and there were more mice all over the ground.
3. Attenborough’s first application for work at the BBC was turned down
He applied in 1950 for a role as a BBC radio talk show producer but was not hired.
4. Helga and Irene Bejach,
Jewish sisters who fled Nazi Germany in 1939, were adopted by his parents during WWII. They were 10 and 9 years old at the time. The sisters lived in Leicester with the Attenboroughs for 7 years, before they moved to New York, to live with a family member. Attenborough held a reunion in 2019 for descendants of the two sisters. Sir David Attenborough will receive the Chatham House Centenary Lifetime Award on October 13, 2021 at a London event.
5. Attenborough does not drive.
Attenborough never took his driving test, and he dislikes driving.
6. Attenborough is happy to answer fans’ letters.
In a BBC Radio 1 interview in 2021, Attenborough stated that he would be glad to do so. He revealed that he gets up to 70 letters per day.
7. He was in the Royal Navy.
Attenborough, in 1947 was sent to an aircraft-carrier for his national service. He left after three years and went to work in publishing as an editor of children’s textbooks. David Attenborough in 1965. Image credit: Mirrorpix/Contributor/Getty Images
8. Attenborough produced his first BBC program in 1952, which was about an ancient fish.
The programme was called “Coelacanth,” . The show focused on the discovery of the coelacanth, an ancient fish that was once thought to be the ancestor of tetrapods — animals with backbones who ventured onto the land. We now know that this was not true, and lungfish is the nearest living relative to the tetrapod.
9. He described the moment as “bliss.”
David Attenborough Plays with Cute Baby Gorillas BBC Earth – YouTube
