David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is the presenter of many ground-breaking and award winning BBC wildlife documentaries. Foremost among these are the trilogy of series: Life On Earth, The Living Planet and The Trials of Life. These examine the world's organisms from the viewpoints of taxonomy, ecology and adaptive fitness respectively. In addition to these series, Attenborough also presented more specialised surveys including The Private Life Of Plants, Life in the Freezer, and series devoted to birds and to mammals.

He was born May 8, 1926 in London. He is the younger brother of director and actor Lord Attenborough. He joined the Royal Navy in 1947 and, after three years service, worked for a publishing company, eventually joining the BBC in 1952. His association with natural history programmes began in 1954 with the series, Zoo Quest.

From 1965 to 1968, David was Controller of BBC2. From 1969 to 1972, he was the BBC's Director of Programmes. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts[?] awarded him the Desmond Davis Award[?] in 1970, and a Fellowship in 1979. He was knighted in 1985. In 1997 he was awarded doctor honoris cause by Ghent University (Belgium).