Do Go On - 39 - Sir David Attenborough

Episode Date: July 20, 2016

One of the most iconic documentary presenters in history, this week we talk all about the legendary Sir David Attenborough. The man, the myth, the legend.Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPod  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there. Canada, we are visiting you in September this year.

If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. All right, welcome down to Do Go On, where everything is going to be alright. My name is Dave Warnackie, and I'm here with two other all righties. One's also a left-handed woman, it's Jess Perkins. Hello.

And my all righty right-hander, Matt Stewart, hello Matt. Hi, Dave, I am all right. You do always say Welcome Down to Do Go On. That is because I have hosted over 1,000 trivia nights with the opening line, Welcome Down to This Week's Trivia, that's why. That's so weird, because we're on a mezzanine. Yeah, we are currently in an elevated space in a warehouse studio. Yeah, we're floating.

But also it kind of gives the impression that we are inviting our listeners and then our friends into some sort of dungeon, like some sort of dodgy basement, when really we should be saying, welcome up, you know? To the attic. Okay, maybe more like a rooftop bar. Okay, no, we're not killing people. I would love to say, welcome to the rooftop bar. It's called Duke along. Yeah, that'd be pretty sick. Anyway. Cosmo's a half price and Matt Stewart's drinking them all night.

Maddie loves a Cosmo. Yeah, you did accidentally. You didn't accidentally. You ordered a Cosmo. That's fine. Well, I mean, the accident was that I was, I probably just wanted a water. Sure, but instead you said, you ordered a 17-11. I'm so easily sold to.

I'm the best buyer in the land. And then, so she came around, I was finishing it. It was nice. I'm like, thank you very much. I said, no, you liked it? Well, we've just got a new cocktail on the menu. Are you interested? I'm like, oh, wasn't really going to have anything to drink tonight.

And she said, it's blue. It's got tequila. In my head, I'm going, I don't like tequila. I don't like, blue? I'm the green man. And she's like, yeah, it's really good. And I said, I'll have one, thank you. Did you actually take one?

Yeah. And then she said, and it's, but she hadn't even got to the pitch of part. I was on a special. It was like $4 off. I'd already purchased it. So both of us sucked at our jobs there. You're the kind of guy. You're the kind of guy and says,

we've got some specials tonight. You're like, I'll take them. All three of them, the soup, the steak. The steak. I'm a vegetarian, but I'll have the steak. You had me at Hello. I never said that. Whatever.

You had me at Hello. That doesn't really make any sense. All right. Great. What have you guys been up to you? I had a cocktail on the weekend, I will say. Did you? I didn't get it at the time.

It was called a simian sling. Okay. Simian's like a monkey? I didn't think of that at the time, but then it came out in like a coconut thing with a little monkey hanging off it. Oh my God, so cute. It was a little monkey. Well, like a little plastic one. Yeah, no shit.

I didn't think it had an actual monkey on that. An actual simian. So you pay $17 for a cocktail, but it comes with a free monkey. Well, that's good value. Matt would say yes. You have to look after it forever. You had me at monkey. Monkeys could cost upwards of $20.

So it's a bug. It's an absolute bacon. You had me at, would you like a... Yes. Yes. Yeah, whatever. You offering something else? Take it.

Yes, I would. Jess, when the last time you had a cocktail, talk us through the situation. It's become that... I had a cocktail on tour in New South Wales, actually. We went to a Mexican restaurant, and they had frozen margaritas that were on... They were like $10 happy hour or something like that. So we had these... Ursula Carlson and I were both like, um, strawberry margarita.

Thank you. And it was delicious. It was great. $10. A little name drop there too. Is that what you're smirking at? No, no. I mean, you had no regret.

That's not what cocktails are about. Well, yeah. You're right. It just sounded like a pleasant experience to you. It was. Dave had a monkey accidentally. Yeah, I'm still looking after him. His name's P.

Paul Pusquale. Yeah, Paul Pusquil. Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee Pee. Pee Pee Pee Pee. He's under the table. He hasn't said his first word yet. He is a monkey. He keeps sucking on. my leg. He bites me a little bit. Sucking on the leg. All right. Okay. As he was taught, P.P.

And so far you haven't found an easy segue in today's topic. I'm really trying. Well, how about I just tell everyone that this is the show where we do a report on a topic. I hope it's cocktails, because I do like them, even though Matt finds them regretful. Well, prepare to be disappointed. Yes, we're all going to be disappointed at that, not just you with your alcohol choices. Look, I'll have a Mahito. Stop bugging me. I love a meter. I'll take it. Right.

So, yeah, it is my turn to present a report, and we always start with a question. Yes. Okay, gentlemen. So my question for you today is who is the most iconic TV presenter? Darryl Summers. In history. Darryl Summers. It's very good a screener.

Ernie Dingo. And another Australian one there. One getaway. David Letterman. Okay. I do you call him, yeah, I guess he's a presenter. That's a good one. It is not Australian, also not American.

Oh, okay. Paul Pascuali. Paul Pascuali it is. The Monkey Hour. The episode of Paul Pusquil. What else we got, New Zealand? That guy that got sent away for being a racist from Morning TV in Australia, that Kiwi guy. Oh, please elaborate.

I don't remember that. He was like a super crazy racist guy. And they paid him a lot of money to come over to do Australian Morning TV and just did not rate very well. Which is weird in such a racist country. but we did not get on board him. We did not get on board him. His name might have been Paul, something. Pusquale.

Pusquale. Simeon on the brain. Oh, Louis Theroux. Oh, good one. Correct nationality. Okay. I think. Oh.

Yeah. Okay. It's just hit me. Yeah. It's got to be the great man. The great man? The one, the only. The 90-year-old man.

David Attenborough, am I right? David Attenborough. Sir, David Attenborough. Do you say Attenborough or Attenborough? I'll probably pronounce a different way. But I think if I'm talking casually, I'll say David Attenborough. Yeah, sure. To my friends.

Because I'm lazy. Attenborough. Attenborough, I think. Richard Attenborough. Richard Attenborough. I'm just trying to practice. This one was suggested by our good friend and listener, Andy Matthews. Oh, thank you very much.

Andy. What is it? At stupid old Andy. Okay. That's stupid old Andy on Twitter. Okay. Okay. He's 90-something.

He's David Attenbrose. This is genuinely on the tip of my tongue Uh-huh You take your time, buddy I hate to rush you Is it? I can almost certainly say it's no To whatever you can say

He's going to say Dale Summers again Is it Richard Attenborough? Close So close So close It's his brother David Okay Okay

Well I feel that was not a bad guess Very good guess I mean with the limited information I had it at my fingertips I'm going to tell you that I'm really excited about this. Are you going to talk about his brother at all? A little bit. A little bit.

Because what a successful family, but I'll let you talk about that. But it is my, but, you know, like, if I was to present a topic of Dave Warnocky, and I suddenly started talking a lot about your sister, you'd be like, the fuck, you know? But if she won Academy Award, maybe. No, but you could mention that, but not like, not change the whole thing about her, you know? But possibly you'd talk about them growing up or whatever, so I'm really excited. Richard will be mentioned. I mean, Richard did bring back dinosaurs as well.

Richard did do that. I mean, is that anything? Come on, mate. But I want to have a bit of a look at the life and work of David Attenborough, if I may, if you will indulge me. Please. David Attenborough. You're an idiot. Okay, so David Frederick Attenborough.

Oh, I like that. He was born on the 8th of May, 1926, in West London. But he grew up on the college house on the campus of the University of. College in Leicter because his father, Frederick, was a principal there. So he grew up around a university. He's the middle of three sons. His eldest brother, Richard, became an actor and director. Okay, is a happy day.

In the first couple of minutes, he's in the church. Oh, man, I'm excited. Would you say most famous for Jurassic Park? Is that the big one? Probably from today's generation. You said he won an Academy Award, which must be... Gandhi. Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry, he directed.

He directed that. He directed that. Which won the Academy Award for Best Picture? Yes. Which is quite a feat. And Gandhi and that was played by that English fella, right? Yes. What's in?

He played Crazy Bastard or something. No, he was in a movie called... Yeah. And we watched it... You know, did you ever have this situation in high school where you'd have a feeling teacher for a while? Mm-hmm. We had one, and different ones,

because a teacher was away for the week. So every day was a different film. and teacher. So they have to start again every time, don't know. And that week we were watching Gandhi and then we're going to do some work about it. So every day, we rewind back to 10 minutes into the movie and just watch it over and over. And the teachers were confused as to why everyone thought Gandhi was so funny. Why do you know all the words?

And then we saw the, so we ended up watching the end over and over. and then people were saying, when he gets shot, he goes, Ben Kingsley's, man. There we go, well done. When he gets shot, he goes, Spoilers. Oh, no. Just sort of like that, just really calmly.

Which is so Gandhi. It's very gondy, but they became a catchphrase around the quadrangle. Everyone would say that. Oh, no. If there was ever, like, if anyone was hit with a brandy ball or whatever, is that? Or shot. Yeah. You knew what to say.

Seems like some Dave Warnocky. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah, but in slow-mo. Oh, no, no, no. I wonder if I'm remembering that right. Anyway, it's pretty relevant. So Richard, obviously, was an actor and director as we've, I was going to say, touched on, but talked a lot about. Great, look, I'm happy.

We've filled the quote. Don't mention him again. Well, no, he comes back again. But anyway. Nope, I'm over him. The youngest brother, John. Oh, now you're talking. Was an executive at Alpha Romeo at the Italian Car Manufacture.

So like, you know, some sort of high up. Yeah, yeah, quite high up in that company. What a fam. Frederick. They're quite a fam. And Mrs. Attenborough, I imagine. Yep, they marry some good boys. Done a great job. Now, from a really early age, David spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones, and other natural specimen.

He is an interesting little fun fact. He received encouragement for his efforts at the age of seven when a young Jeketa Hawk admired his museum. Now, she was a British archaeologist and writer. I thought it was a type of hawk. Hawk, no. Yeah, Hawke came down and said, this is pretty good stuff. Pretty good stuff. You should keep this up.

No, she was a British archaeologist and writer, and the daughter of Nobel Prize winning scientist Sir Frederick Galand Hopkins, who won the Nobel Prize in 1929 for the discovery of vitamins. Isn't that cool? Wow. Yeah, some things you forget had to be discovered. Yeah, you just accept it. Yeah.

We discovered vitamins. Before that, we didn't really have a concept of vitamins. Wow. Or vitamins. He probably wasn't even a rich man, and now that's a multi-billion dollar industry. It's a multivitamin kind of industry. She did it. She did it.

Now, David also spent a considerable amount of his time in the grounds of the university, and at age 11, he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts for one of their studies. Nutes. Newt gangridge? Neut. Who was the old... The guy ran for presidency in America, newt, Gingrich, newt, no, all right, great, lots of newts.

I thought I was going to have more than that. Newt, did you say Newt, all right. I said Newt. All right, I am going to give myself a little bit of time in the quiet corner. Right, so the Zoology Department need newts for their study. So he offered, fire his father, he said, oh, Dad, tell them I can give them, I can supply them with the newts that they need. The,

what then was like three penny, three penny a newt. So he was like, oh, you know, I'll supply you. It's like a little business.

Yeah, I'll supply you need, but you got to pay me and they were like, yeah, that's fine, whatever. But what the department

didn't know at the time was that David was getting the nutes from a pond at the university that was about five metres away from where the department was. So I could have got it themselves. Yeah,

I could have just gone out there but he went and did it instead. And I think is genius. Very good. Absolutely. What a little cheek star. Is that a thing? A cheekster?

Probably not. He's now. Cheekster. In 1936, so David was 10. He and his brother Richard. There he is. Hey? They attended a lecture by Grey Ow, who was a Canadian conservationist.

I thought it was going to be an owl. I keep disappointing you today. They were really influenced by his advocacy for conservation. Now, Gray Al was a First Nation man who, they're like the Aboriginal people of Canada. And according to Richard. David was bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disasters should the delicate balance between them be destroyed. I have no qualms in saying that I'm a big fan of the beaver. Big big fan.

Have you ever seen beavers, they are an amazing looking thing. I genuinely, do you idea? He couldn't even keep a stroke place. Have you ever Google image searched? A beaver? Can you stop? No, but have you really? Because they're a really, really cute animal.

Seriously, they are actually so adorable. And you would probably also enjoy this lecture by Grey Al, because he was really into... He's into the beaver? Into the beaver. You're the worst. So then Richard goes on to say that the idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time.

Right, so here's the first one to care about the beaver. The first one to sort of notice that humans are... really killing the world. And this is what, 1936, so he's 10 years old. And that's still, like, if you see his work now, that's still largely what he talks about now, which is pretty cool, right?

So, you know, this, Greyhall was probably really influential to both of them because in 1999, Richard directed a biopic of him, entitled Grey Al. So both boys were really impressed and inspired by him, which is pretty cool. That is cool. Except...

Oh, no. What's the except? When Grey Al died two years after, the boys saw him speak, so 1938. Oh, right, yep. Doubts about his First Nation identity had been circulating, and stories were published immediately after his death. So, for example, the North Bay Nugget newspaper ran the first expose the day of his death,

the story which had been holding for three years. So basically they're saying he's not actually part of that tribe of people. Right. Grayal was a name he chose for himself. It was, like, false. and his name was actually Archibald Balani. He was born in the UK and emigrated to Canada when he was 18. Right, so he wasn't indigenous to Canada.

He wasn't indigenous to Canada. But his popularity in support for his causes led the Ottawa citizen, which I think is another newspaper, to conclude, of course the value of his work is not jeopardised. Yeah, of course. He's got a great message. Yeah, absolutely. And all the work that he did and everything.

And that was pretty widely shared in the UK press as well. It was like, well, you know. Oh, good blikes still. Yeah, it may not have been entirely above board, but all of his work still. Do you get the feeling that the biopic that Richard Attenborough made would have mentioned all this controversy? Yeah, I don't know, maybe. Or do you think that he portrayed him just as the man he said he was?

The hero, yeah, I don't know. You can speak, Matt. I know you've put yourself in the quiet corner, but you're allowed to speak. Yeah, just thinking about grey owl and the beaver. That's what, I mean Gray, I'll love the beaver No, no, no, no, Jess No, no, no, no

Just thinking about, like Yeah, is that enough To do good work to be like Pretty, like that's pretty Buck to do that I'm brushing over it Like I'm sure it was probably not Completely

I mean, he helps He helped out some animals. Is that enough to, like... I think you did a lot more than that. I'm just sort of mentioning... What are we... So, yeah, it just seems like how do you... It feels like the kind of thing you just get caught in a lie.

Yeah, you tell someone at the bank. And then one day you're like, fuck, everyone thinks this now. But why are you telling people things at the bank? I don't talk to people at the bank. Yeah, Dave. It was a different time, 1936. That's true. It was a different time.

Speaking of that different time. So David Attenborough was educated at... This is like the most, like, posh sounding boys school. It might not be, but it sounds pretty. It's the Wiggiston Grammar School for Boys. Oh, Wigeston. Wigeston. I was in Leicester.

And then he won a scholarship to Clare College in Cambridge in 1945, where he studied geology and zoology and obtained a degree in natural sciences, which is pretty cool. But in 1947, he was called up for National Service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and in Scotland. So he went off and did his Navy service. Probably pretty lucky that the Second World War just finished.

There's a lot less dangerous time to be called up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, after leaving the Navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. Just editing, wow, okay. Editing textbooks. And obviously, he's into science and he's got that degree. So that's kind of up his alley.

He became quite bored with the work, and in 1950 he applied for a job as a radio talk producer for the BBC. And although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams, who was ahead of talks, the talks department of the BBC. So the talks is just like any... It's factual... Yeah, factual broadcasting is sort of how they describe it.

So she was the head of the talks department for the BBC. Sorry, for the BBC's television service. So he applied... He applied for a radio job. He didn't get that. job but he's attracted her attention for TV and the BBC's TV service wasn't doing that well and it's probably pretty early on wasn't DC 1950 yeah so it's early and it's early days yeah yeah um Attenborough like most Britons at the time didn't own a television and he hadn't

he'd only seen like one television program in his life so you're and now I'm gonna make television well you're absolutely right and that TV was starting it was just sort of starting out and that show he'd seen was leave it to beaver for some reason. Matt's back. Good night, everybody. Right, so even though he hadn't really seen much TV, didn't even own a TV, he accepted the offer of a three-month training course. And also in that year, he married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth, Oriole, which is fantastic.

Fantastic name. I assume he married her on her name. Yeah, well, I mean, who were you choosing based on their name a couple of weeks ago? There was somebody whose name you were like, yeah, I'd marry that. Do you remember that? Was it a lovering? Yes, it was. It was Lovering.

Clara? Clara, who was involved with H.A.T.O.S. A lot. Very, very, very dangerous man. Oh, Lovering. And you're like, yeah, Lovering, for sure. I'd marry her for her name. You creep.

In 1952, he joined the BBC full-time. So originally he was just kind of doing a little bit of work. He joined them full-time. Initially, he was discouraged from appearing on TV, like, actually on camera. because Adams thought his teeth were too big. How do you bring that up for someone? You've got a weird look. Hi, can I go on the TV?

No, your teeth are too big, get back behind the camera. Well, you know TV's all about image and stuff like that. It's all about teeth size. It's all about teeth size. Your smile is too big. This is a serious business. I think your teeth are just the right size, Jess. Do you reckon?

Matt, do you think of my teeth? Probably you could knock off a couple of mill. Do you reckon? Yes, chisel them down. That's what the industry people do They chisel their teeth He sort of talks with his mouth closed a bit Doesn't he?

I can't say I've noticed his teeth Turtle Do you think that he's trying to hide his teeth? He's a teeth hider Yeah Because of her Maybe he used to be really smiley And she's kind of ruined that for him

That's probably Created his amazing voice though That's true It was like hello everyone I got my teeth out No instead Here we find The Dave Warnocky

Mm-hmm. Watch as he blinks. I don't know if I said blinks. That's good, commentary. You are nailing. I'm pretty good. I do a pretty good at him, bro. Sit and blink.

We're going to go. Watch he sheds his skin. At this time of year, the Warnocky sheds three layers of skin, runs around naked. This is part of their mating ritual, and it is very rarely successful. Please.

Please. Please. There's the meeting call. Please. No, it's more like, go on. Go on. Go on. Please.

You're not enjoying that, Matt. Okay? No, I'm just, that's just, it feels a bit sad. Well, nature often is true sad. Oh, fuck off. That's the meanest part. It feels too real. It's definitely not real.

Dave's a beautiful man. Certainly am. Anywho. Perfect size teeth. So David Edinburgh has. Teeth that are too big. So we're not going to put him on camera. So instead he becomes a producer for the talks department.

Well, I should have put him in the radio department. That way you make sure they never get on camera. Face for radio, exactly. But no, he's behind the scenes. He's a producer for the talks department, which, as we sort of mentioned before, handles like non-fiction broadcasts, basically. Cool.

So it's all factual kind of stuff. Now, his association with natural history programs began when he produced and presented a three-part series called Animal Patterns, and it was like a studio-bound program. So it was all shot in a studio. and it featured animals from London Zoo with the naturalist Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, self-defense

and like courtship display sort of like the Dave Warnocky mating ritual. Right, right. So what they bring in the bird or the... Yeah. I know. I imagine it's not the rhino. Yeah, well...

Bring in the bird. I mean, that's why it's kind of interesting because it does say it's a... Bring in the Chacetta Hawk! Bring her in! Because it says it's a studio-bound program, so yeah, it must be sort of smaller animals, I guess. Do you say he's presenting this?

Yeah. So they're giving him a... go. Yeah. Well, yeah. Produced and presented. You're wearing some sort of device to cover his mouth? Fake teeth.

Yeah, he's wearing a gas mask at all times. It's very strange. They never explain it. Well, you know, people just kind of accepted it. Now, through this program, Animal Patterns that he was working on, Attenborough met Jack Lester, who was a curator for the zoo's reptile house. And they decided to make a series about an animal collecting expedition. And the result was a show called Zoo Quest, which first broadcasts in 1955.

For ZooQuest. ZooQuest is pretty cool. That's a fantastic name. Yeah. Now, he became, Admir became the presenter of this one as well at short notice because Jack Lester was really sick. Right. His teeth were falling out.

His teeth were fine, but his kidneys weren't. Like, he was sick. I don't know. He was ill, so David Anbrough stepped in. He was a presenter of the series. So that's kind of, like, those two shows are sort of the start of his work with natural history programs, which is kind of cool. In 1957, the BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol,

and Attenborough was asked to join it, but he declined because he didn't want to move from London where he and his young family were settled, because by this stage he and Jane had a couple of kids. I've had Robert and Susan, so he doesn't want to move his kids, so he's like, no, I'm not going to, I'll have to stay here, which is nice. He's a family man. That is nice. You're so quiet. You can talk.

I'm not saying you have to, but. Quick, think of something. No, it's fine. I was just worried, are you okay? I've hit a wall. Okay, sure, sure, that's fine. Well, do what you've got to do. I'll bounce back.

Yeah, I know you were, buddy. So instead of moving to be part of the Natural History Unit, he instead formed his own department, which was the Travel and Exploration Unit, much cooler name. Much cooler, but also, I imagine the Travel and Exploration Unit has to leave London away from his family, probably a lot more than the other unit.

He did not think that through. I don't want to travel, but I'm setting up the travel. Well, no, but like that way, at least the family stays where they are, and he can just travel around, I suppose. Yeah, I don't care about it. No, but, like, he's not uprooting the whole family, making the kids move. They stay there and he goes traveling. That doesn't make sense.

We tease, but he knows... I can't believe that I was second-guessing David Attenborough. How dare you? Even in the 1950s. God. So that did sort of allow him to continue to present Zoo Quest as well as produce other documentaries. It's fantastic. We've got to talk about that.

ZooQuest. It sounds like a board game. Yeah, it does a bit. Sounds a bit like Jumanji. Another name for Jumunji. But you've got to like collect... No, it feels like you've got to go on safari and like, I know, capture animals for the zoo. Well, it's a show about collecting animals for the zoo.

So yeah, I guess it's an appropriate name. They still do that? Not catching them, but like... It's just now they just... The zoo animals all just came in on their own accord, right? They have one door, like a one-way door. So leave it open. Oh, no.

You can come, but you can never leave. They walk in and go, oh, shit. I left my phone out there. Oh, God. Can I just, I'll come back in. I just left my... Promise. My girlfriend's out there.

Can I just go see her quickly? I just need to get my phone off her. No. Getting the penguin enclosure. Doesn't work for prison, does it? It doesn't work for the zoo. Because the zoo is a prison for animal. I never thought of it like that before.

You had it here first. So he was working on that for a while And then in the early 60s He resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC To study for a postgraduate degree In Social Anthropology The London School of Economics Interweaving his study with further filming

Oh so he's still presenting Yes I think so So he's doing like a little bit But he's resigned from the full-time permanent staff So he might just still kind of do a few things But He's freelance, now.

Yeah, that's a good way point. Yeah, yeah. However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as controller of BBC 2 before he could finish the degree. Controller. That sounds very high up. By looking at it, I think it's sort of like an executive producer or he's like in charge of...

The whole channel, right? Well, it's, uh, mate, yes. Let's say yes. Like the remote controller, but he's the one who's at the station. So whenever... You're the fat controller? Fat controller. The remote controller.

I don't know. Fat controller. Fat controller. He's the one who changes the channels. Mm-hmm. And then... That'd be remote controller. Remote controller.

And then the fat controller is the one that turns the volume up. Yep. Was that worth putting in there, eh? It's all making sense. Is that worth contributing to the conversation? Well, to be honest, if you were there for me, and if this was a team game, you would have turned that into something.

great. This has never been a team game, mate. I imagine that he's like some sort of director. Yeah, it seems to be quite like a, I would almost say like an executive producer sort of thing. Like overseeing a lot of things. But the whole channel rather than a TV show. Yeah, exactly. Amazing.

Yeah, so that's for BBC too. What year were we up to? That's in 1965. He became the controller of BBC two. But he had a clause inserted into his contract that would allow him to continue making programs on an occasional basis. So he's still kind of like, the business side, but also, like, he can be writing stuff and working on programs, because that's what he really loves to do.

That's cool. Yeah. And he must have been pretty good if they were like, yeah, well, he did that. Exactly. And later in the same year, he helped film elephants in Tanzania. You know, like, this is all sorts of projects that he got to do while he was a controller. Like, in 1969, he made a three-part series on the cultural history of Bali. Like, so he's working on all sorts of different things, which is pretty cool.

And although BBC 2 was actually launched the year before in 1964, it had really struggled to capture the public's attention. Like it was struggling. It wasn't doing very well. So when Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly shook up the schedule. He was like, he came in and just made some changes. He's like, I'm going to fuck shit up. I am burning everyone.

You're all fired. You're fired. I am BBC 2 and I'll make every show. It's amazing. They had their national broadcasts had a second channel about 50. years before Australia did. Amazing. Yeah.

It's pretty... I mean, their population probably demands it. It does make sense. So he wanted to make BBC 2's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks. So he began to establish a portfolio of programs that would go on to basically define the channel's identity for decades to come. So he made some huge changes, which was really cool. So he introduced music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experiment. experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history.

They all had a place in the weekly schedule on BBC. I was it before that. They just had a camera on the roof of the building. There was no entertainment. He introduced entertainment to TV. Hey guys, how about we replace that one show with several others about different topics arranging in interest and age groups? It'll never work out and bro, you're a madman.

You're crazy. You're fucking crazy. But I like that. Let's give it a go. Let's give it a go. So it did do... Apparently sport is popular, okay. We'll find out, won't we?

We won't, we will find out. We're on my teeth. I've lost my teeth. I'm perfect for television. I'm perfect. I got no teeth. Chiseled them down to dust. I've dizzled them down.

They said they were too big, now they're gone. Learn from my mistakes, David. My mishmakes. Learn from my mishmakes. Who is this character you've created? I'm just imagining he's the janitor, but still he's. He thinks he knows more than the director of this. Because he used to be a controller.

He used to be a controller. Now I cleaned the Johns. With my teeth. I'm where they've gone. Oh, Dave, no. It was funny until you went there. No, I think when he said Johns, he meant Richard and David's younger brother. I cleaned John.

I clean your wish my teeth. Oh, wow. Just scraping off grime. Stop it. Scraping grime off with my teeth. Yuck. It's enough. Stop.

It was a grotty time. Stop it. Yuck. Okay. Back to BBC 2 and shaking things up. Shaking it up. So programs he commissioned included Man Alive, Call My Bluff. Maybe one that we've already spoken about before,

such as Monty Python's Flying Circus. What? What? Yeah. So he commissioned, I think, that's really cool, isn't it? Yeah, isn't that kind of interesting? He gave them a go. Yeah.

And it was really weird. That would have been part of the, experimental comedy section, I would assume. Yep. Because they were a little bit different. Now, BBC2 later became the first British channel to broadcast in colour. That was in 1967. Did David make that choice?

I were like, this won't catch up. I don't know if he made the choice, but he did, he took advantage of it by he introduced televised snooker, as well as bringing rugby league to British television on a regular basis. Both still very popular in England. Yeah, so he was, you know, he knew what he was doing. He was good at his job. Snooka would have been hard in black and white, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, true. It's all coloured. Coloured balls. It's all coloured, yeah. It's all coloured. It's just colours. There's about 16 colours. Name them, Jess.

Not again. Call back to last week's episode where I tried to name 16 colours. And did it successfully, may mind you. Did it in record time? I think you'll find it was the world record for the fastest time to name 16. separate colours. Nailed it. So you're welcome.

It only took 49 seconds. Buh. One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the... Sorry. That was very funny. 13-part series. I get it as... What are you talking about, Dave?

I lost it. I thought you were to say, what are most successful things was ordering a 13-course meal? That's what I thought you were going to say. There was pasta. There was pizza. Okay, Dave. Name 13 courses.

All right. You come out, you go in there. There's a canopay. Some sort of hors d'oeuvre. Second hors d'allelette is there. She's gone vague early. Some sort of... You couldn't even name one.

One or 13. Some sort of horset. All right, we've got Carly bread. It's up to two. Followed up by sushi as at all. Sushi next, sure. We're back to Italy with pizza. Sure.

Four. There's a roast. Yep. Five. There's a chicken. Obviously. Not roast, boiled. So different, six.

There's an egg dish. An egg dish? What kind of egg dish? Look, what am I? A master chef? Fuck. Oh, what's the seven? There's a, everyone takes a break and has a glass of sangria.

No. That's not even a course. But they eat it with a spoon, so it's like a soup. Okay. That's a thick sangria? Thick sangria. You have to eight. How many did I promise?

13. Of course, then there's time for, I can't even think of things that eat. baked potatoes baked potatoes spring rolls spring rolls he's just thinking of food you're I don't

I really really am what did I eat today what did I eat today uh chuross comes out have one of those for lunch yes I hate that for lunch there's a Greek yogurt

followed by a normal yogurt just in case wow he did it and that is what put David Attenborough on the math Greek yogh followed by a normal yogurt they're saying

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Thank you. And that only took three minutes and seven seconds. Record time. We break records every week here. The most bullshit sparse. Name 13 dishes, go. I'd love to do an interview show.

Name 13 dishes. Easy. There probably, here we go. All right, well, I'm so sorry to disappoint you with the rest of my sentence then. Okay, so what did you order 13? 13-part series. Oh, that makes much more sense. Yeah, because he works in television.

Oh, not in food. He's not a caterer. 30-part series on the history of Western art. And kind of the idea of that was to show off the quality of the new UHF colour television service, the BBC 2 offered. That sounds like a very ambitious show. The History of Western Art. Even in 13 episodes, that's pretty...

It was... Pretty ambitious. Really successful. And people love to do that. Yeah, it was broadcast to universal acclaim. It was in 1969 that they did it, and it was called Civilisation. and it kind of set, I like the way this is worded.

It set the blueprint for authored documentaries. So it was sort of like this is, like it was revolutionary in a way. Oh, was he the host as well? I don't know. No, I didn't think he was the host, no. Right, but he's devised it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a guy.

And he's sort of commissioned that series and made it happen. So that's kind of cool. So Adam Bro also thought that the story of evolution would be a good topic. To tackle it. a one-part episode. For a series. So he shared his idea with a guy called Chris Parsons, who was a producer at the Natural History Unit,

who came up with the title Life on Earth, and he returned to Bristol to start planning the series. And David Attenborough was, like, he harboured this strong desire to present this series himself. He wanted to be the presenter. But, like, it wouldn't be possible so long as he remained in a management position. He couldn't really, like, then it's sort of like,

I'm running the show, I'm on the show, I am the show. He's not having little breaks, but is this like a massive, probably like takes a year to film. Yeah, and I don't think he's really doing a lot of on-camera stuff. When we say he's working on the project, I think he's riding a lot of stuff or contributing to shows, but he's not necessarily always the presenter.

Cool. Right, so he really wants to, like he's really invested in anything, so that would be really great, but while he's still, you know, one of the bosses, he can't do it. Bit of a dilemma. Yeah, well, and it sort of almost, I guess, in a way, got worse because in 1969 he was promoted to director of programs, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels,

which is huge, right? Well. Yeah. No, his tasks, which included... I had no idea about any of this side of him. Yeah, I know, right? He's got like a real background in television, like a real high up top...

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. A lot of people kind of don't really know that. So when you find out that he studied natural history and stuff, you're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense, because look at him now. Exactly, but then he goes... He's sort of working behind the scenes in a lot of TV, which is really interesting.

I mean, if there was about four or five years, it was a hairdresser, which I also... Found surprising? Yeah, it is surprising. And then he was a butcher for a bit, which was weird because of his... Yeah, love of animals. Love of animals. But, um...

Hey. Do I wonder if he's a vegetarian. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. There wouldn't be that many 90-year-old vegetarians, right? When was it invented? I don't know.

I don't know. You're the veteran vegetarian here. I'm a vet. You tell me. I went through many campaigns. I'm not eating a certain thing. Mm. Yeah.

No, I don't know. Good question, though. Maybe I'll come back with you next week. To the answer to the question, is David Attenborough a vegetarian? Yeah. Great. If I think it was somewhere we could find out. Anyway.

So with this new job, he was sort of a bit more businessy. You know, he was sort of, he was in a lot of meetings, board meetings, had to agree to budgets. He was now sort of, he had to agree to budgets. He had meetings. You know what it's like. It sounds horrifying. No, but it just meant that he was far removed from the business of filming programs. Like, I can imagine if you've made a documentary about elephants in Tanzania,

that's a lot more interesting than going into a business meeting and talking about meeting targets. Yeah, exactly. Even if it is television, that's still the... And his passion... There's the business side, and he likes animals. Yeah, his passion is actually creating the film. So he's got a promotion, and that's good, but it's not... Yeah, he's probably getting paid quite well.

Yeah, but it's not quite what he wants to be doing. So when his name was sort of being thrown around as a candidate for the position of Director General of the BBC in 1972. So is that the absolute top job? It seems to be, yeah, pretty high up. Man, that's awesome. He phoned his brother Richard and confessed that he had no desire for the job. He's like, I don't want that. He wasn't, like, it wasn't that he was offered.

People were just kind of, his name was sort of being suggested when the role was kind of, he's like, I don't want that. Earlier in the following year, he actually left his post to return to full-time program making, which left him free to write and present the planned natural history series that he'd wanted to present. So we got to do it, the Life on Earth series. The one that he was angling to be. Yeah, that he really wanted, but he's like, I can't do it while I'm the big boss. But now he's taking a back seat and he's like, I can do the show I want to do, which is lovely. It's lovely.

Hey, you guys, do you notice how I just popped out to the library for a bit? I was just checking about his vegetarian. Oh, let's all go around the table and take a guess. All right. Well, you know the answer now, obviously. I reckon he is a meat eater. I reckon he is a vegetarian. Dave is correct.

He's a meat eater. He's an omnivore. And apparently it's because, yeah, he thinks, you know, he sees it out in nature. He thinks of us as, that's how we're evolved to be omnivore, so he's an omnivore. Fair enough. He likes meat, basically, and he can't be fucked, changing his ways, stubborn old. Oh, no, no, no. I want to keep that it so bad.

Why couldn't I have said something? else. Can you beep it? Yeah, probably. Yeah, that'd be fun. So after his resignation, Attenborough became a freelance broadcaster and immediately started work on his next project, which was a pre-arranged trip to Indonesia with a full crew from the Natural History Unit.

It resulted in the 1973 series Eastwoods with Attenborough, which was similar in tone to the earlier Zoo Quest show. I just wanted to bring up Zoo Quest. I'm glad it's making a comeback, and it should make another comeback. So Eastwoods with Attenborough was a little bit. that series. And after he came back from that trip, he began to work on the scripts for life on earth. And due to the scale...

Oh, so that hasn't started yet. It hasn't started yet. It's kind of just a work in progress. Right. Due to the scale of his ambition, like this is a big project they're taking on. The BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. And while the negotiations are happening for that, he's working on a number of other TV shows anyway.

Like, he's always just working on lots of different projects. So there was one about tribal art, which is called the Tribal Eye. and another one on the voyage. Tribal eye for the straight guy. Exactly. They were ahead of their time. And there was another one about voyages of discovery, which is called The Explorers also in 1975.

So he's busy working on other stuff. Explorers Eye for the Straight Guy. Eventually the BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting and Life on Earth moved into production in 1976. Is that Ted Turner? Ted Turner. So that's the CNN guy. The guy that founded CNN?

Yes. Yeah, Ted Turner. I didn't know. Is that right? Yeah, that's right. The first 24-hour news network. I did this report this morning. Ted Turner is a billionaire media mogul.

But that is the same Turner as... Almost certainly. Turner Broadcasts. How many turners could there be? Tina Turner. Fitter and Turner. That always comes up. It's always an answer to a list.

Fitter and Turner. Corner Turner. Bonson burner No That's not quite the same is it You're getting better at rhyming though Which is good We've been working on that for a few weeks haven't we?

Yeah we have We have Page Turner Now you're back You're back on Because that one exists Right So this is sort of the

beginning of Not the end Not the beginning of the end Because he's still alive The beginning of his most well-known body of work, which is kind of known as like the Life series, because I think they all include the word life in the title. So beginning with life on Earth in 1979,

David Attenborough set about creating a body of work which would become a benchmark of quality and wildlife filmmaking and influenced a generation of documentary filmmakers. So he's, you know, like... He's the godfather. He's the godfather of documentaries, especially in wildlife. The series also established many of the hallmarks of the BBC Natural History Output.

So by treating his subjects seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of scientists who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his program. So because he knew his shit and did the work and was not just some paid actor that says the lines. He respected it so much and was so passionate about it that he sort of had their respect. And then that's how he has such amazing resources that he uses for all of his documentaries, which is really amazing. So, for example, in Rwanda, Attenborough and his crew were granted privileged access to film a research group of mountain gorillas, like that other people would not have access to, but the people who were, you know, using these guerrillas as research, allowed him to film them, which is amazing. The success of Life on Earth prompted the BBC to consider a follow-up, and five years later, the living planet was screened. And this time Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology

and the adaptations of living things to their environment. So it was another critical and commercial success, which generated a huge international sales for the BBC. Right, because I can sell it to every network ever. Exactly. So they're doing really well. He's making them a lot of money. And in 1990, the Trials of Life completed the original Life trilogy,

looking at animal behaviour through different stages of life. Now, it kind of drew some strong reactions from the public because it had sequences of killer whales hunting sea lions and chimpanzees hunting and violently killing other monkeys. It was pretty... Yeah, that was new... Pretty graphic. Yeah, right.

Yeah, it would have been. Or, you know, you shouldn't be showing that, but... Because that's kind of what you think about. Like, when I think about those kind of shows, it's always a cheetah chasing down an antler or something, an antler. Give me that antler. That is why they chase down those antler. right? That's good for their antlers.

Yeah. Why the cheaters do it. Yeah, they like... They're... They make jewellers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're a big market for it. It's how they make a buck,

and then they sell that, then they buy food with the money you make. They buy... King Warr. Antelope. And that's why David Attenborough eats meat. He sees that circle of life and it makes sense. He gets it.

Hey, can you beep out earlier when I said... You've already asked that. Wait, can you do it again then? Yes. If it just misses, even better. In the 1990s, Edinburgh continued to use the Life Strand title for succession of some more documentary.

So in 1993, he presented life in the freezer, which, have a guess what that one's about. I reckon he had a weird turn, obviously, and he went down to the supermarket, and he just sat in there with the peas for a watch. He just suddenly hit him. I filmed everything outside. Maybe I start filming stuff inside.

These peas are on special for $3 for a kilo bag. Life in the shower I spend the long time every day in here I'll look up a camera Here we go This is it No

It was about It was the first television series About the natural history of Antarctica And although he was part Really the first one A television series wasn't until the 90s Yeah That is incredible

Natural history of Antarctica And although he was well past The normal retirement age He was 67 at this time He then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. Plants proved to be a difficult subject for his producers who had to deliver five hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects.

That is... I would use bees, I reckon? That is an amazing feat. Well, the result is the private life of plants, which is in 1995. Private life of plants. I like it. Everything's just blurred. Check out that stigmata.

Stigmata? That's not the right word. I'm not finding words today. What do you call the plant dicks? What are plant dicks called, Dave? They're not stigmata. That's the bleeding from the hands of Jesus Christ. It's something like that, though.

Stamen. Stamen. Stamen. Stamata, stamen. Sameda, stamen. Saved it. Well done. So, primal life of plants showed plants as dynamic organisms

by using time lapse photography to speed up their growth. So that means that they just filmed every plant you see. They just filmed for like four months. Imagine. Isn't that crazy? How much footage, how long it takes to ingest all that video. That would make it interesting viewing. I'd love to see that.

Sped up plants gone. Yeah, it looks really cool. And the light changes around it. Yeah. And you can see like, you know, they're like vines and stuff like crawling out and wrapping around. Yeah. Absolutely amazing. So it's well worth it.

Now next, he was prompted by an enthusiastic ornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit. That's a bird lover. Okay, well, that was about to make sense in the next sentence. Thanks, Dave. Attenborough then turned his attention to the animal kingdom and in particular, birds. That's because ornithologists like birds. It's not related to their name, it's just as a coincidence. Yes, it's amazing.

Well, yeah, ornithology is actually the study of ants. This guy just happened to like birds. How did you know? So as David Attenborough was neither an obsessive twitcher, which is like a bird watcher. A nickname for a bird watcher. And he wasn't a bird expert. He decided... Ornithologist.

He was better... Sorry. He was better qualified to make the life of birds, which came out in 1998, on the theme of behaviour. Because he's not an expert, but he's like, I'm going to just study their behaviour. That documentary series won a Peabody Award the following year, which recognises distinguished work by... American radio and television stations. So obviously for its broadcast in the States. Did his documentary about the freezer win a pee body?

No. Frozen Peabody. Sorry, everybody. So the Order of the Remaining Life series was dictated by developments in camera technology. So, for example, for the life of mammals, which is in 2002, low light and infrared cameras were deployed to show the behavior of nocturnal mammals. And advances in macro photography made it possible to capture... natural behaviours of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005, light in the undergrowth introduced audiences to the world of invertebrates.

What are they, Dave? They're people who don't like to socialise. That's right. I just wanted to say that the camera work of those documentaries is so incredible. When you think about, like, the one that fascinates me is the ones underwater, where he's narrate. Like, obviously, David Attenborough is the face of it. He's narrating it.

Done a lot of research. An amazing guy. I always feel that the camera people don't get enough credit for spending, like, months underwater filming. It must be so cold, also dangerous at times. Dark. It's absolutely, yeah. I mean, they do feature in the credits. How much credit do you want them to have?

They get paid very well, Dave. Do they get paid well? They're not doing that job to be in the spotlight. They just want to, bloody. Get wet every now and then, you know? Some people just like moisture. We all like to get wet. It's not all about,

no, everyone wants to be just in the bloody public eye like you, Davey boy. Come on, mate. Some people like just to get a little bit damp. This is a weird episode. I feel very weird. Touch me. I feel weird. No, you're all dead.

Come damp all over. Some of us just like to be that way. I shout. fully clothed. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. No.

I'm terrified. Okay. At this point, Attenborough realized that he'd spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programs on all the major groups of animals and plants. How are you suddenly real? Hang on, I've done everything. Hey, are you knocking David Attenborough? No, it's an amazing realisation.

There's a butt. Oh. Only reptiles and amphibians were missing. Oh, only two of the largest groups. So he did him. Life in Cold Blood was broadcast in 2008, and he'd completed his whole set. And it was actually brought together in a DVD encyclopedia as well,

called Life on Land, which is pretty cool. He's covered everything now. And in an interview that year, he was asked to sum up his achievements, and he responded, The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd ask me 20 years ago, whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task,

I'd have said, don't be ridiculous. These programs tell a particular story, and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did. But I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years time, it will still have something to say about the world we live in. Oh, David. Isn't that nice? Oh, I really like that. I've got a couple of other things that he worked on outside of his life series. So he narrated every episode of Wildlife on One, which is a BBC One wildlife series, which makes sense.

It's a wildlife series on BBC One, so they call it Wildlife One. They're pretty creative. It ran for 253 episodes. Wow. Between 1977 and 2005. And at its peak, it drew a weekly audience of 8 to 10 million. That is... Isn't that amazing?

A lot. And also a long span. Long span. It's about years. And the 1987 episode, Meerkats United, was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers. That's pretty cool, isn't it? I love Meerkats.

Yeah. And he also narrated over 50 episodes of Natural World, which was a BBC 2 flagship wildlife scene. So he's just across BBC, like you wouldn't believe. He's either a poster boy. Yeah, he totally is. And a guy called Alastair Fothergill, who was a senior producer that Attenborough had worked with on the trials of life and life in the freezer. He was making the Blue Planet, which was the unit's first comprehensive series on marine life.

This is one of my favourite sentences that I came across. He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking on camera through diving apparatus. I love that. But the big advantage, you couldn't see his teeth. Couldn't not see his teeth. So David Attenborough, he was asked to narrate the films, which I think is probably a better idea than having somebody on. I guess I do do that noise very well, thank you.

Yes. Some would say you possibly pick this whole topic to showcase that skill. Correct. Some other work that he's been a part of. From 1983, Attenborough worked on two environmentally themed musicals. What? With the WWF and writers Peter Rosen and Conlon. Yeah, so there was one about the Amazon rainforest,

and the second was called Ocean World, which premiered in 1991. There was a couple of musicals that he worked all there. It was pretty cool. Ocean World. Is this fun facts? It's kind of leading into fun facts. I have a section called Fun Facts, but all of this is pretty fun from now. Right, I just wanted to say it because you did promise them last week.

Yeah. And I am kind of, I'm getting towards the end here. I wanted to mention some of his awards and then I've got a couple of fun facts. Okay, great. I'm excited. Matt, room for fun facts? I mean, yes. So awards, firstly, or awards and recognitions, by January 2013,

Attenborough had collected 32 honorary degrees from British universities. 32? More than any other person. So, wow. 32 honorary degrees. I, like, they're listed on the internet. I'm not going to read them all out because that's ridiculous. That's absolutely, I imagine, oh, his study must be full.

When you're honorary, that means they just go, come to this barbecue we're having, we're going to give you a piece of paper, or do you have to do anything for that? We have to have achieved something in a, hopefully in that field. It's not just come to a barbecue. Right, okay. Jesus Christ. But you don't have to, you've already done it. You've happened to have done it and they'll invite you in.

Just because every time we have. have a barbecue and I give you a little certificate. Yeah, I just thought that might have been how it worked. That's not how it works. I set a precedent once by doing that and you cried the next time we had a barbecue and I didn't have one for you. So I had to go and print one off with clip art on it. Welcome to the barbecue certificate. I mean, you know, the crying was just, that was a coincidence, Jess.

It wasn't Matt. You was throwing you, you threw yourself down on the ground, you were stomping your legs and around. You were screaming about certificates. You were flailing, yeah. You were screaming, this is about the lack of certificate. Yeah, but that was a coincidence. What significant were you talking about then? I mean, I was just making noises

and it just coincidentally formed words that said those things. Well, you'd never get that from David Attenborough, is what I'm saying. Yeah, well, I mean, it was a one in a billion chance. Never. If you followed me around with a camera, David Ambrer, if you're listening, you probably are. Your bloody arrogant. Oh, what is happening? Hey, all right, all right, all right, okay, we get it.

You hate David Atmer. I'm sorry, I'm really finished talking. You piece of work. No, he's all right. He's got some issues, obviously. He's got 32 degrees, mate. He was also... Is there any downside to him?

He does seem like a pretty good guy. There's no downside. He's a majestic human. He was knighted in 1985. That's when he became Sir David Attenborough. You were Sir Matthew? No, you're not. He was named...

I'm not even letting you respond. One of those certificates you gave me said... I was. No, it said Prince. It said you're a little Prince boy. My little Prince Maddie, it said. The other day I went and had got some shoes and the guy said, excuse me, sir, do you want to try on a pair?

Huh? So who's not a sir now? Fuckhead? Do you know what that sounded like? In that scenario, it sounded like you were walking around a shoe shop. You tried on the one that's on display. And the guy came over and said, excuse me, sir, would you like a pair? It's weird that you want one.

No, no, I'd like one. And then you called a salesperson a fuckhead. I've gone off the rails lately A little bit Okay Your language is unacceptable I'm really sorry about the language I'll be back on track next week

Bullshit Atma was named The most trusted celebrity in the UK In 2006 Reader's Digest Poll I just think that's really cute Most trusted To do what to pick up your kids To be home alone with

Anything he's trustworthy With your secrets Trust with your secrets Yeah all right David Here are my financial details Yeah, here is my card. My pit number is triple three seven. Help yourself.

Help yourself. I'm sure you need it. You won't, though, because I trust you. I trust you not. Please look after my infant. Thank you. Here's a... Dear David, Edmund, here is my infant in a basket at your doorstep.

Please look after, I'll be back at four. Here's a DVD of me engaging in a sexual act that I want no one to see. I trust you not to watch this. I'll be back next weekend and I reckon you'll still be able to look me in the eye. Better than the cloud, I reckon. Don't you reckon? Oh, but yeah. We should store everything in David Attenborough.

He's so trustworthy. He's packing up his assail. Yeah. Another callback. You can't say that about David? He was also, in 2017, he won the Culture Show's Living Icon Award. So he's also a living icon, apparently.

He is. Yeah, he's a national treasure. He's been named among the 100,000, Greatest Britons in 2002 BBC poll and is one of the top ten heroes of our time according to New Statesman magazine which is kind of cool. In September

2009 London's Natural History Museum opened the Attenborough Studio which is pretty cool which is part of its Darwin Centre development so he's got a studio named after him which is kind of cool. That's real cool I mean I did just carve in the Jess Perkins podcast studio into the wall here but

and you will be paying for that damage and nobody came to the ribbon cutting ceremony even though I sent you all an evelight. Well, if you'd made it at a barbecue, Matt would have been there. Where's my certificate? Come on, Jess, don't make this about you. What are you body, David Attenborough or something? This is a good one.

This is quite a recent one that you may remember. In May 2016, so just a few months ago, it was announced that the British polar research ship will be named the RRS Sir David Attenborough in his honour. That's right. Ignoring. That's it. While an internet poll suggesting the name of the ship, had the most votes for Boaty McBoatface, because the UK is the best.

Science Minister Joe Johnson said there was more suitable names, and the official name was eventually picked up from one of the more favoured choices. So it was still, like people still voted for it. They thought that was really nice. However, one of its research subs will be named Boaty in recognition of the public vote. Great. Good compromise. The RRS Sir David Attenborough, informally known as Booty McBoatface.

Yeah, I'm sure that would be the nickname for a long time. Yeah. I wonder if it transfers across to him now. People start calling him Bodie. Ah, good question. We'll soon find out. Attenborough also has the distinction of having at least 15 newly discovered species and fossils being named in his honour, which is pretty cool. Did you say nearly discovered?

No, newly. Okay, that does make more sense. I reckon there might be a sheep over that hill. And if there is, I'm going to call it David Attenborough. Well, back to bed. Okay, that's a weird conversation. Like I had with himself. I'll see that sheep tomorrow.

Just some lunatic in a field. I'm going to leave everything. David Attenborough. That tree, David Attenborough. That fence. David Attenborough. I'm David Attenborough. It was David Attenborough.

He's constantly narrating. He can't love it. He narrates his breakfast. Do you have a few fun facts? Yay. Oh, see, I think... They were all fun. They were all fun.

I can't... How fun. That they're going to be. Then I'll just say I'll continue with the fun facts. No, start them up. Fired up. He's the only person to have won BAFTA's for programs in each black and white, color, HD and 3D.

Oh, he's wanted a 3D BAFTA. That's kind of cool, isn't it? 3D BAFTA. Well, no, I'm assuming because it's a physical award, yes, it would be 3D, but it's for a television program in 3D. What a guy. What a guy. In 2002, he was named among...

Nope, I already said that one. He was named a mung. That is a fun fact. Someone online called him a mung. What's that even mean? I think they misspelled. During World War II, through a British charitable program known as Kinder Transport, his parents also fostered two Jewish refugee girls.

And one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with prehistoric creatures. And some 50 years later, it would be the focus of his program the Amber Time Machine. That is cool, but also the inspiration. Yeah, Jurassic Park. His brother's park. Ripped it off.

His brother ripped him off and gave the idea to Michael Crichton, who wrote a book, and then got directed by Stephen Spielberg. Yeah, that's definitely how it worked, though. That's that worked. His children, do you want to know what they have done? Was it Susan and what was going on? Susan and Robert. Susan is a former primary school headmistress, so she was a teacher.

a former Prime Minister. What? How did you not hear? But Robert is a senior lecturer in bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University

in Canberra. What? He teaches here. And is he, Attenborough, obviously, is he surname? Well, yeah. And my uncle works at A&U and I was like,

can you please look up Robert Attenborough. What does your uncle do there? I do not know his official title, but he works in like the School of Sciences as well. Does he like some sort of an academic? Yeah. He cleans the John. with his teeth.

How dare you? He's... What? Oh. He's very high up. To clean is, what, a thing of... With his teeth? Like some kind of animal.

All of a sudden, cleaning things with your teeth. Is my uncle Jeff an animal? You fuck. I didn't suggest that. Jess? Let me move on. I can't believe that you're... I will fight this outside.

Well, this is disappointing. I thought you were open-minded. You were a real cheekster, Matt. A real cheekster. Thank you, Dave. That is worth. Enough of this gimmickery. And just a...

finish on, it's just another nice quote from him that I really like. He was, he had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013. He is 90 now. He was 87 when he got a pacemaker. He's in such good neck. Actually, he's the same age as my grandpa. And your grandpa then? My grandma.

Grandma, right. That's right. But she is in, she's fit, but she couldn't, you know, still host TV shows. Yeah. Oh, my, my grandpa, both my grandparents are in very good health. But yeah, they stay home a lot now. Yeah. Because they're 90.

Yeah. You know, that's totally fine. Anyway, they've earned the right. So he had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013. And in September, in an interview, he said, if I was earning my money by Hugh and Cole, I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not.

I'm swanning around the world, looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune. Ah, he just loves his job. He loves it, and he's really grateful for it. I think that's really lovely. So that gentleman is my... I finish every topic with, and that gentleman is my report on David Attenborough.

Thank you. I will now take questions. Oh, okay. No questions. Oh, God, please don't ask questions. No, Dave will. Some reason. Dave.

How long does it take you to look that good in the morning? Wow. About one hour. That was a turn I was not expecting. I'm glad it went that way because I didn't know how long you're going to, I didn't What are you going to ask me about? We're done. That was a fantastic report about a fantastic man.

Yeah. He's just a cool guy. Cool dude. I think we talked about celebrity passings and things like that. When it, you know, knock on what he eventually does go, I think that will probably be the biggest outpouring. Yeah, that'll be huge. I can't think of anyone else. It's really awful to think like that, isn't it?

It is. But I think it's a sign of respect. He's done so much. I reckon he's almost closer to the end than he is at the beginning. Dave. But Jess, that was a great report. Thank you very much for that. No, Dave.

Thank you for your friendship and your company. And thank you to Andy, our friend. Yeah. And E Matthews and listener for suggesting that topic. I think that was, Andy's made a couple suggestions, and I think that was the first one that we've reported on if I'm not wrong. So, um. That is a fact.

That is a fact. Thank you. Matt, the Master of the Hat. Thank you, Andrew, for that. Much appreciated. Yes. Thank you. And to all a good night.

I'm genuinely going to go to bed as soon as I can. Yeah, I think that you definitely need to do that, Matt. But thanks for listening, everyone. If you want us to do your topic, your topic of your choosing your suggestion, please tweet us in at do go on pod. Email us. Do go on pod at gmail.com. I wash my tea.

Facebook, all that kind of stuff. You can get in contact. Yeah, suggest your things. And tell your friends, I honestly think the way that we're getting out there and we get a little bit more, you know, our listeners grow every week. I think it's just because you guys are telling people that like podcasts to give ours a go. This week's hashtag, of course, is hashtag, show us your teeth, with a photo of you showing us your teeth.

That is a brilliant idea. We want to know if your teeth are too big for the BBC in the 1950s. Show us your teeth and we'll tell you if they're too big or not. We'll give you some teeth feedback. Some tweet back. Some tweet back. Some tweet back. Hashtag, tweeth.

That sounds strangely dirty. Tweeth. That's very close to quif. That's why. Show us your tweet. But yes, show us your tweet. And we'll let you know what we think of your teeth. We will judge you, possibly harshly.

We'll also, should we also tweet pictures of our teeth then? I don't have great teeth, so probably not. That's so mean. We're telling them to. No, you guys have got lovely teeth. Thanks, man. I had braces. Mine are all right up top, but they take a pretty nasty turn down.

down below. Do they? I can't say them. From here, they look fine. You're showing me your beard. All right. So thanks for listening, everyone. We'll be back next week with another report.

And until then, Jess is going to be laughing her head off, I imagine. That's what I do. That's what you do. Matt's going to be in bed probably for a week. Oh, man, I'm so tired. I haven't slept since last week's episode, basically. Yeah. Yeah.

You totally haven't. I partied all week alone. I had a couple of cocktails. We'll go have a simian sling. And we'll be back next week. Thank you and goodbye. Bye. Later.

Simian Sling sounds like a euphemism for Speedos. I'm going to jump in the Simeon Sling in 250 laps. All right, bye. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester. We were just in Manchester.

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