Original subtitles

Hello, and welcome to what promises to be a very special evening.

Tonight, on the occasion of his 90th birthday,

we are privileged to be celebrating the life and career of a man

whose passion and knowledge of the natural world

has fundamentally changed how we see the world.

His unique ability to help us understand our planet is little short of remarkable.

He is frequently referred to as the greatest broadcaster of all time.

He's even beaten David Beckham in a poll of the coolest men on the planet.

I am, of course, talking about the one and only Sir David Attenborough.

Tonight, we've got a rather different programme for you.

And top of the menu right now is salmon.

And for that he must fight.

Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me the greatest of pleasure

to welcome Sir David Attenborough.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, to your little television party.

Well...

I think they are pleased to see you. First things first, happy birthday.

How... How is 90? - Thank you very much. - How does 90 feel?

Well, I haven't got used to it yet. - No? - I hope it'll be okay.

Like 80, you know, like, say... No, it won't be like 60. But it'll be good.

In your 90th year, building up to the birthday,

it strikes me you've been as happy as ever. I've been talking to people behind the scenes.

They say, Argentina to Australia and everywhere in-between.

Just remind us of what you've been filming in the last 12 months.

Well, I filmed that big dinosaur,

the biggest one yet found in Argentina.

I filmed luminous earthworms in France, believe it or not.

I've been on the Barrier Reef. So, I've had a good time.

Your fascination with the natural world is obvious to all of us.

And it's interesting that the beginnings of your career in television

were really the beginnings of television. I mean, that's when it really got off the ground,

in those very early 1950s. How did you get into television?

Oh, by accident. And certainly not by design.

Because I had never seen television, in 1952.

And the number of people who could see it were tiny.

They were just in London. A few thousand people.

And then I was working in publishing,

on an extremely boring job,

putting commas into manuscripts, or occasionally taking them out

if I was feeling bad tempered. And it was indescribably boring.

And I saw... Saw an advertisement in the paper

that said the BBC wanted a radio producer.

Talks producer. And I thought, "Well, I can talk. I must know how to talk."

And so I applied and I... I got a polite refusal.

I didn't get an interview or anything. - Right. - just said, "No, thank you very much."

Which is understandable. I'm sure they got thousands.

And then about a fortnight after that, I got another letter

from someone else in the BBC saying, "We're starting this new thing called television.

"Which a lot of people are rude about "and we think, but there could be something in it.

"And we've seen your... We've seen your application

"and you're the sort of person we are looking for. "Would you like to apply?"

And you ranged across as a young producer, all subjects, then.

I mean, what would you have been covering as a young producer? - Non-fiction. - Right.

And so I did... I mean, I started off

by doing an archaeological quiz called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.

But I did political talks, I did political discussions.

I did gardening. What else did I do? Knitting.

They had prog... They had a programme on knitting. Yeah.

By 1954, you had honed your skills enough

to be allowed to work on something... I mean, R was naked Zoo Quest.

And, actually, it would go on to be a very, very popular series.

You were working as a producer or you were working as a presenter?

I was working... Oh, no, not at all. I was entirely a producer.

I had no intention of being a presenter.

And the only reason I did was because the man from the zoo, jack Lester, became very ill.

Yes. - And it was a live show.

So I was told by the head of the television,

"Okay, the only other person who can do this is you."

So I appeared by accident, really. - So you travelled around the world for Zoo Quest,

with your companion at the time. It was a cameraman called Charles Lagus.

He's a slip of a lad, David. He's just 88. And we went to hear some of his memories

of those early days working with you. - I met this young man called Attenborough.

We seemed to hit it off straight away.

And David's knowledge just staggered me.

When we first got off this aeroplane and started walking

there would be the odd bush animal that walked past, you know.

He instantly knew what it was, what genus it was.

Look at trees, he knew what 'tree it was.

His zoological knowledge

in a country he'd never been to, he'd never been out of England,

was absolutely brilliant. I mean, he was just so reliable.

We slept in hammocks.

We spent a lot of time eating boiled rice.

And, yet, we just got on and did it. It just seemed natural.

But it was quite good coming back and having a proper meal.

When you look at that film, what are your memories?

Are you suddenly back there? Are you taken back to the moment?

Yes. Yes, I truly am.

They were marvellous trips, of course.

And you couldn't do anything like it now because there were no mobile phones.

There were... When you left, you left.

And so the animals that you would bring back then,

one of the most notable is the python.

Well that was one we caught in Indonesia, in java.

Did you catch it? - Well, yes, I did.

Because, you see, poor old jack, he'd left. And I, in order to carry on this charade,

that I was an animal collector...

You know, I had to actually... I had to do the business.

How do you... How do you catch a python? - With great difficulty.

And... And considerable alarm, I don't mind telling you.

Okay. Well, let's just take a little look

at the Zoo Quest episode with the python.

Helping me control, this python

is Mr Lanworn from the Reptile House in The London Zoo.

Who, in fact, has it in his care now.

How is he? - Well, he is doing very fine, actually.

He's doing... He's doing... Well, here's a very good example of how he constricts his food.

Shall I just show you or will you lose your hand? - No, I don't think so,

I'll be able to get out eventually. - While I leave Mr Lanworn to untie himself from this snake,

we must say good night. So, from us both, good night.

David, I think that must have been the last time you used Brylcreem.

You did look very smart there. Let's talk, then, about making a name for yourself on screen.

You did that with Zoo Quest. It became hugely popular.

And then something rather unusual happened.

As we know, again, it was the fledgling days of television, it was 1965,

and they said to you, who was becoming this televisual presence,

"Would you like to come and run BBC Two?

To be the controller of BBC Two?" What was your plan?

Well, it was just about the best job

you could possibly have in broadcasting, really, if you were interested in programming.

And the brief was, "Whatever you do, make it different from BBC One."

They'd go a bit further. They said, "Provide an alternative to BBC One."

Now, actually, you can't define what an alternative...

What is the alternative to football? It's certainly not Beethoven's string quartets.

I mean, people will play quartets like football just as much as anybody else does.

So, in the end, we decided as long as we got a new kind of programme,

it would be... It would do. So, we developed new things in every genre, really.

We had new kinds of drama, we had classic serials from the great authors.

We had new sports, we had a floodlit rugby league, which we started.

And we started snooker, I don't mind telling you.

So then, you'd been controller of BBC Two.

You'd made such a good job of that that you were then promoted

to Director of Programmes and you were very diverse and innovative.

Interestingly, the big landmark series was something that you became known for,

this was Civilisation, there was the Ascent of Man. There were lots of comedies too, David.

There was The Likely Lads, and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Well, joining us to tell us more, please welcome the wonderful Michael Palin.

David.

Good to see you.

So, Michael, Monty Python at the time, of course,

cult status for many decades, but, at the time, it split audiences

a lot of people didn't like it and didn't get it. And it certainly

among a lot of the sort of management of the BBC,

it was not popular. - I must say, you were very good. You were the one...

A lot of other BBC executives avoided us completely.

And you came up and said, "Well, you know, "the fact that you're not on every night

"and the problem is that you get taken off "when Horse of the Year Show overruns,

"means you're gonna become a cult show." - Yes! - "And cult shows are never forgotten."

And I thought, "What a Load of old rubbish." But he was right!

Nice thing about Python was that we were... The BBC let us just get on with it.

Nobody supervised the programme or watched what we were doing.

And we were able to hone it over sort of 13 shows.

There was a lot of very bad stuff that we did and there was a lot of very good stuff.

But, it was amazing, the BBC let us just carry on experimenting in our little basement.

And, David, you mentioned the sports programming

that you were responsible for as Director of Programmes. It was Match of the Day.

You introduced One Day Cricket. And you mentioned the snooker.

And of course, you decided to put snooker on

at a time, much like a lot of the technology that you've used subsequently.

Because it was only then that people could see the different colours. - Yes.

And did people think snooker would be good TV?

No, it was a classic line. I had to explain.

That you see, although the people with colour sets could see it in colour,

the majority of the people couldn't see it in colour.

So the commentator had to help them understand.

And I impressed this on the commentator during the first show.

And he, sort of, after he'd got into the show and the game was progressing,

and he was doing the hushed tones, you know.

He eventually said, "And now, he is going for the blue.

"And for those of you with the black and white sets

"the blue is next to the green."

David you are very well known for quizzing visitors

to your home, on some of the... They are very exotic, very rare objects

that you've collected over the years, indeed. Michael, you were put to the test

back in 2002, I think it was. - I was. I was quaking in my boots! - Oh, come along, now.

Let's take a look at this documentary live on air.

Yes, well, object number three is?

It's extremely heavy. I would have thought it was an egg of some kind.

But I can't imagine any animal. - It is an egg? This is cut from inside of some creature?

Yes, it's an... It's an egg. - Dinosaur egg.

Full marks. Ten out of ten. - Really?

There are two thing you can always say under these circumstances.

Either it's a ritual object... ...or else, money.

There's always two. You can always say one of the two, one or the other.

Okay. - And that is money. - Ritual...

We're rather a good comic team, I think, David, actually.

So it is your turn then, Michael. We're giving you the turn... - Yes.

You're gonna turn the tables. - I have something that probably won't be that difficult.

But I've got something which I procured in my travels

and I wonder if you know what it might be, where it's from, what it's for?

Money or ritual object? - Would you like to use it? - Use it?

First of all, David, it's the wrong way up.

I was gonna say a flower arrangement. - No? - No. Turn it the right way up.

Well... Well, it's either a neck rest or a bottom rest.

And I reckon that's a bottom rest. - Yeah. - And I reckon it must be an African one.

Yeah, people would carry them around, actually, like that, you know. - Exactly.

He got that annoyingly quickly, didn't he?

That is from the Karamojong people.

Is it? - I mean, brilliant. - It is. - And these very, very big guys,

they're enormous people, and they just take these around and whenever they want to sit

just sit on these. I mean, it's really... It looks easy,

but actually it's got...

Actually that's not bad, really. There you are. Well...

Beautiful, economic, clever... It's a... - It's a wonderful thing.

But it's the only thing they have apart from their spears as far as I remember, is that right?

One of them had a Rolex watch, actually. Seriously, quite seriously.

Michael Palin, thank you very much indeed.

David, I think it would be fair to say that you have probably

travelled more places than anybody else who has ever lived.

But there is one place you still haven't been to.

Good evening, Sir David and good evening, everyone. And welcome on board the International Space Station

where we are orbiting 400 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Sir David, your adventures and your words have inspired us enormously

and changed the way that we look at our Earth.

Britain has a long history of scientific endeavour.

And just like the naturalists and explorers of our history,

it's important that we tell the story of the scientists,

conservationists, and explorers of today to the next generation

to change our future for the better. So from here in space above the Equator,

I would like to wish you, Sir David, a very happy 90th birthday.

You had then, as is clear, spent a very successful time as a backroom boy,

running BBC Two, being Director of Programmes.

You had risen pretty high and you decided, extraordinarily,

and this seems to be a, sort of, pivotal point in your life. It was 1972,

and you resigned those big jobs. You said, "I don't fancy this anymore."

I mean, what was your thinking? And it must have been, personally, a pretty momentous decision.

Well, I don't know. I mean, you know, it paid off the mortgage

and the children... The children had left school

and had been educated. And... What was I going to do?

And what I, what I thought I was...

What I know I enjoyed most was making programmes. So why not go back and make programmes?

1979, Life on Earth makes it onto our screens.

It is a ground-breaking series. It's a 13-part series. It was hugely popular.

It made you a household name. What was the inspiration for that series?

Why did you passionately want to make it? - While we are... When I was running BBC Two,

we started a new kind of documentary which was 13 part, one-hour programmes.

Which set out to, more or less, say, by implication to viewers,

"Look, if you want to know about this that you've often heard about,

"stay with us for 13 hours week by week. "And at the end of it, we will have given you

a reasonably responsible outline of what it's about.

But I knew, you see, the, the subject

that you could really make a mind-blowing series about

would be the history of life on Earth,

from the very simplest to the primates like ourselves.

And that could easily fall into 13 parts.

And I thought, "By golly, that's a thing I'd like to do."

My worry was that while I was Director of Programmes

that some other perisher was going to...

and say, "What about this wonderful idea of doing the history of life?"

And I couldn't, in all conscience, then say, "No."

But fortunately nobody did. And so, as soon as I resigned,

I suggested to the BBC that maybe this would be something they might consider.

It was a huge hit with viewers. It was full of extraordinary moments.

But, of course, the most celebrated moment from Life on Earth is...

I don't even have to say what it is. It's this magical sequence here.

Let's watch it.

There is more meaning and mutual understanding

in exchanging a glance with a gorilla

than any other animal right now.

And this is how they spend most of their time

lounging on the ground, grooming one another.

Sometimes they even allow others to join in.

Extraordinary. Well, joining us now to tell us more about that moment

is someone who was just a fresh-faced research assistant in Rwanda at the time.

He's now the Chairman of The Gorilla Organisation.

Please welcome Ian Redmond.

Happy memories I can tell, watching that clip. David, what was the original purpose

of filming this sequence among the gorillas?

Well, I wanted to... One of the key things in the history of humanity,

in the evolution of humanity, was the moment when our ancient primate cousins

developed the ability to put thumb and forefinger together,

so they could hold. Initially, of course, branches so they could swing around.

But if you can do that you can hold a tool.

If you can hold a tool, you can make weapons,

you can make all kind of objects that you wanted to.

So, the opposable thumb, as it's called, is a crucial thing.

And I wanted to illustrate that with apes.

And, Ian, were you surprised when you saw the behaviour

of these gorillas around David?

Well, at the time the gorillas were used to one observer.

So it was very unusual to have a group of people coming in.

Right. But gorillas seem to have this concept of a friend of a friend.

And if they know someone and there's somebody else they don't know with them

because they're with that someone... Okay.

And before you visit gorillas, you're given a sort of briefing in gorilla etiquette.

And David absorbed it, almost like second nature.

I was preparing myself to talk about the opposable thumbs,

when I felt a hand on my head...

And I turned around and there was this huge gorilla. And she actually started, like,

by putting her big forefinger in my mouth. Like that.

And I thought, "This is not the moment to talk about the opposable thumbs."

And it went rather out of my mind, really.

And I was, sort of, Lying there in...

I suppose, it really was a kind of paradise, really.

Because you're being accepted by an animal

which was immensely powerful and which was clearly friendly

and accepting you on your own terms, as it were.

And there are very few animals that you can do that with.

You can't do that with lions. You can't do that with...

It's a mutual trust. - Yeah, it's a mutual trust. - You're trusting them

and they are trusting you. - And David what is so extraordinary

that this has become a sort of emblematic moment in your career,

it almost was not filmed at all. - Well, john Sparks, who was the director,

was worried about this because it might appear to the audience that we were,

as it were, were a part of Blue Peter or something,

and that these were tame gorillas. And he didn't want them to appear tame.

But Martin saw this, it was the cameraman, said to him after a bit, he said,

"We really ought to be filming it, you know."

And so he pressed the button and got that footage.

And, so, Ian, this was 38 years ago, I think, that this was filmed.

The situation then was perilous for these gorillas, what about today?

Well, then the gorillas were at their lowest ebb.

We thought there were about 250 mountain gorilla in the Virungas.

A few years before that footage, a poll among school children

had gorillas in there with spiders and sharks as the scariest animals.

And so having a well-known TV presenter being accepted in a trusting way

by a family of gorillas transformed people's attitudes.

The result of that was a coalition of organisations got together

and things changed. Decades later, we can say that there's a census going on right now,

we're expecting there to be nearly 1,000.

So, from 250 to 1,000, not all in the Virungas, but in the two populations.

So, it's one of those rare things, a conservation success story

which this man played a significant role in. - Fantastic.

just before you go, do tell me, the little baby gorillas,

did they thrive, were they fine? - Pablo grew up to be a splendid silverback,

became one of the most successful silverbacks of the study.

And POPPY who is a little younger than Pablo,

is still with us and still producing babies and she's one of the elders

in the gorilla population. But, yes, we follow their lives,

it's like a never-ending soap opera.

And every year we learn new things about gorilla society.

Ian Redmond, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Fascinating.

So, in the interest of BBC non-bias

we thought it entirely necessary that we should hear the gorillas' side of the encounter.

So, our friends at Aardman Animations have lent a little hand.

He was talking very quietly.

And he's very tall. Yeah, I noticed he's very tall because,

when he's sitting down, he's really sprawly.

But, yeah, I mean, he could get close if he came into my space.

I mean, I wouldn't let him walk all over me.

But, I think David Attenborough's probably got a...

Got an empathy with nature. And not just animals, you know,

but any living things, you know.

It's like he's sitting down with a mate and he's telling you all these stories.

What is he? He's not an archaeologist, is he?

What... What's his... He's not naturist, he doesn't go around naked, does he?

Does he?

You're not a naturist, are you? - Why do you ask?

Well, they mentioned it. Now, David, obviously you are someone

who is watched, who is admired all over the world.

But I'd say nowhere more than here in Britain.

Sir David, on behalf of the whole country

I want to wish you a very happy 90th birthday.

Like so many, I grew up watching you and learning from you

as your enthusiasm opened my eyes to the natural world around me.

Your lifelong service has created the most extraordinary educational legacy.

And even today, you're pioneering the latest technologies.

Britain is incredibly proud to have the greatest naturalist on the planet.

For just as you treasure the world so the world, rightly, treasures you.

Thank you for all that you've given to us and all that you're continuing to do.

And I wish you a very special evening.

David, it is surely true what the Prime Minister says there,

you know, technology has done so much to bring the natural world

into people's living rooms and into their consciousness.

When you started, I mean, it's brilliant looking at that, isn't it?

I mean, the technology was so much more difficult, I'm guessing, to work with

cause it was so simplistic. - Yes, but now we have absolutely everything.

In fact, I truly think

there is almost no circumstance that we can't film.

The new thing that we're doing, of course, about bioluminescence

is the latest step forward. Martin Dorne, who is the cameraman

is passionate about experimenting electronically with new cameras

and new ways of doing things, in order to get these shots of very bioluminescent animals.

And as you were saying, five years ago that would've been impossible.

Let's just remind ourselves of the fascinating sequences

that have been captured using some of the world's most incredible technology.

We really know very little of what goes on in the heart of a bivouac,

like this. But this optical probe may help us find out.

Here is the nursery, full of young, developing grubs.

The lions are now so at ease,

our spy in the den can often approach to within a whisker.

Once they're thoroughly warmed up, marine iguanas can maintain their body temperature

just about as constantly as I can,

and what's more, at about the same level or, indeed, slightly higher.

With an EGO-degree view and an extremely powerful lens,

the camera can zoom in from a kilometre away.

Another revelatory film technique involves slowing down the action

simply by increasing the number of images taken per second.

As the sophistication of time-lapse photography has increased,

so we've been able to show that plants

can be as competitive and as aggressive as many an animal.

So, of course, that was time-lapse that we saw there, which I think you are a great fan of.

It reveals so much that the naked eye can't see.

And one of the cameramen responsible for many of those

really magical films is called Tim Shepherd.

You've described him as a genius, no less.

We've got a new sequence here which Tim has made especially for you this evening.

For me? - For you.

Beautiful.

Nice, huh?

Thank you very much, Tim. Yeah. - Whilst we are on the subject of technology,

talking, doing pieces to camera under water

is surely one of the trickiest things to pull off.

Maybe the bubble helmet was going to be the answer.

Yes, it's a hideous memory to me. I'm sorry to see it again.

It's a long time ago now,

having been talking to camera on land for a long time.

There was a new series about the, under water,

which was being produced by a friend of mine called Alastair Fothergill who was the director.

And he explained that if I was going to be a narrator it was going to be quite difficult.

I could do it sitting on the ship, of course, on the boat.

But how was I going to talk about coral or sharks or whatever, under water?

Alastair said, "I've got a great idea. "We've got a new technological thing,

"it's called the bubble helmet. "See? And what we do is that you put that on your shoulders

"and screw it down "and then you'll be able to talk

"cause there's a microphone in there." And I said,

"It doesn't seem a very good idea to me, at all."

And I said, "What's all this business of screwing it down?

He said, "Well, you've got to screw it down "cause otherwise it'll leak."

I was, "That's all very well, but how are we going to get it off?"

"Oh, we'll be able to get it off in, you know, five minutes or so."

I said, "Five minutes is a very long time, especially if it goes wrong."

He said, "It won't go wrong. "But I'll tell you what,

if you're nervous about it, we'll test it." This was when we were gonna film

electric eels in the Amazon and I was gonna talk about them.

"We'll do it in the hotel swimming pool," he said.

So, he put this on my shoulders.

Well, getting your head inside that is not easy actually, see?

Your nose gets caught. - Oh. Yes, yes.

And when you screw that down on the... You really do feel trapped.

So, I waded into the pool and then very gingerly,

sort of, submerged myself, and water started coming in.

And I thought, "It takes about five minutes to get this off."

So I came out in a hurry. And Alastair said, "What's the matter?"

You know how directors are. Yeah. - Oh, yes.

"What's your problem?" I said, "It is full of water."

So he said, "Well, you must be doing something wrong."

I said, "I just walked into the pool and it's filled with water."

He said, "I'll show you." So he took it. He put it on.

And I had some pleasure in screwing it down. I said, "Go on in there."

He went in there, he came up quicker than me, with water...

And he took it off and he said, "There must be a fault." I said, "Well, thank you very much."

So, we then... We then partly decided that, actually, we wouldn't use it.

Of course, when you're filming in the great outdoors,

even with sometimes the most hi-tech equipment,

as we just heard, things don't always go to plan.

Because this snow is not white...

Red and black, venom lack.

Red and yellow, and I get out of the way.

The volcanoes of today are mere feeble flick...

The influence of this continent is global.

What happens here matters.

That's the first time I've ever known you do that.

They reunite once they come back here

onto their own patch of shingle.

It's so effective, that even a rich woodland like this

can seem totally devoid of birds.

But that, that's a completely different sound.

That's an aeroplane.

He is so charged up, this being the breeding season,

that he'll display, to almost anything, including me.

No doubt. This, surely...

This surely is one...

When it came to allocate a scientific name to this bird, called it...

Paradisaea apoda.

Even when things threaten to get a bit frisky and dangerous,

you always look relatively calm. When you've been filming, when has been the time

when you've thought, "I really need to get out of here." Has there been a moment when you thought,

"This is actually a danger to my life", with a wild animal?

Well, I was with one chap who was an expert in elephants and rhinos,

and we were driving along and...

He suddenly lent over to me and said, "Do you hear that?"

And I said, "What?" He said, "Well, there was "a pitter-patter, Didn't you hear that?"

I said, "No, what was it?" He said, "We were charged by a rhino."

I said, "Were we?" He said, "Oh, yes, yes, but it was a dummy charge."

I said, "Was it?" He said, "I'll show you." He put in reverse.

I said, "No need, I'll absolutely take your word for it."

He said, "No, no, no, no." So he reversed.

And a rhino came out of the bush at about 40 miles an hour

and hit the back of the Land Rover with its horn,

lifted up the back end of the Land Rover and shook it.

And then retreated and came back and dealt with the back wheels,

ripped up the tyres and all that. I said, "That was a hell of a dummy charge."

And completely wrecked the Land Rover, actually. Yes, that was quite dangerous.

David, let's take a look at a very touching moment.

It was filmed just a few years ago for the series Africa.

You met this little baby rhino called Nicky, you'll remember, of course.

And what was remarkable about this little rhino is that he was blind.

But, just as we think we're finishing, someone won't let us go.

Hello, little fellow.

He starts to squeak. And we're able to have a little chat.

Think about it, he's got a black world, doesn't he?

And he's got smell. And he's got sounds.

So, he's more likely to be responding to sound if he hasn't got the vision.

And just inquisitive, I suppose. Are you coming back?

just remarkable. Well, joining us in the studio now

from the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya

where those moments were filmed is Sarah Watson. Sarah, welcome.

Tell us a little bit about this remarkable little creature's background,

about Nicky. - Well, he is blind. And we realised that he was, you know,

black rhino quite early on, sort of, when they're about one or two weeks old

are meant to follow their mothers out and about in the bush,

but he wasn't doing that. So, it was at that point we thought,

actually, we got to bring him in. So the guys brought him in

and I've got a big boa at the back of my house where these rhino live,

and he became part of the family. We got him when he was three-and-a-half months old,

and, yeah, he's still with us. He's now three and a half.

David, so much of the programming that you make

is so meticulously planned, it has to be,

by virtue of the scale and the complexity of it. And yet, it is so often those moments,

the moments that just seem to unfold,

and that you are so capable of taking us on this little journey

through this moment of magic.

Watching that, the whole thing feels remarkably emotional,

and I'm just watching it on TV. When you were there doing it,

are your emotions involved when you're filming something like that?

Oh, well, that is such an endearing little creature.

And the fact that he couldn't see... - Hmm.

...brought out a sympathy in one.

And then he suddenly started talking to me.

He had a long chat, yeah. - Yeah, we had a long chat.

I'm not absolutely sure what I said, or what he said in reply.

But you actually took the words out of my mouth. Can you speak rhino?

So you were just... You were just chatting. - Yes, I was just responding to his noise.

But, yeah, a charming creature. Really lovely.

I wonder what you think is the most important factor

in protecting endangered species like Nicky the rhino.

And, actually, endangered species, more generally. What should our approach be?

Well, the rhinos, as you say, is a special problem because of poaching.

And poaching is a huge problem, worldwide.

So we have to develop a sympathy for the natural world, everywhere.

And, actually, I think that's one of the things that television can do,

that natural history programmes can do. I mean, it's a bizarre thing, isn't it?

You know, there are more people living on earth today

than there have ever been in the history of the universe.

I mean, there are three times more many people on this planet now

than when I started making those programmes back in the '50s.

And they all need places to live and so on.

Of course they do. But if we go on increasing at that sort of rate,

there won't be any wilderness left. And there are other creatures on the earth

that also call this planet home. And we have the responsibility for them.

So what we have to do is, is to give them the space,

to give them the natural reserves where they can flourish,

which is their right. - Sarah, you work hard at giving them the space

and you were saying now that Nicky is a big, relatively healthy boy now.

How's he getting on? - No, he's thriving. He's an extraordinary animal.

There he is. - I mean, I know I'm bias. A lot of it is because he is blind.

But his other senses are very heightened.

I mean, he knows my smell and he knows my voice

and so he sees me, he basically rolls over a bit like a Labrador.

He knows he's gonna get de-ticked. He thinks it's heaven.

But he represents 1/5000th

of the remaining population of black rhino in the world.

So his job is gonna be an ambassador. And through people like David, who, you know,

the fact that everyone I know has seen that clip and I'm like, "Yeah, that was my rhino."

But if we can just get a little bit of the message out, it's a start.

Sarah, thank you very much indeed for joining us this evening. - Pleasure.

Just before we move on, let's hear from another, rather special conservationist

who's been inspired by your work. - David has been the single most

important impact in my conservation thinking. And I used to love...

And I still do, but when I was a young boy,

I used to love turning on the television and watching David's programmes

and really feeling like I was either back out in Africa

or I was learning about something magical and almost out of this planet.

And there's something very calming

and, sort of, warm about his programmes. There's something very reassuring about

seeing David Attenborough on BBC One doing his documentaries.

It's part of the national psyche now and he's a national treasure.

And it's very fitting that he's having his 90th birthday

only a few weeks after the Queen. Two incredible national treasures

who have done so much over the years.

So, His Royal Highness there talking so genuinely about,

you know, turning on the telly when he was a little boy, and seeing you there.

And that is something that's familiar to all of us here in this audience.

I'm interested, though, for you, when you were a little boy,

what turned you onto natural history? Where did it begin for you?

By and large, there were two things. First of all, there was the Leicestershire countryside.

Yeah - Which is where I grew up. And apart from that, there were wonderful books.

One of the one which I don't think anybody,

or very few people know about him now, a man called Ernest Thompson Seaton.

He was ranger in the Canadian Prairie.

And he wrote about the animals that he knew, the wolves and the buffalo, and so on.

And they had... He drew... He was a good artist as well.

He drew the little footprints down the side margins.

I adored those books. Wept over them, too.

And what about... There you are, look at you in your little Fair Isle socks.

What about the influence...

You're not... You're not still wearing them. What about the influence of your parents?

I mean, were they interested in the natural world? - No, my father was a scholar, an academic.

And an expert on Anglo-Saxons. - Right.

But he understood about education.

And he said to each of his three sons, you know, "What is it you want to do?"

And when I said that I wanted to do something to do with animals,

he didn't say, or fossils,

he didn't say, "Well, the name of that is this or that or the other."

In any case, he didn't know. But what he did say was,

look, there are ways of finding out about that.

You can go to the museum, they'll tell you about that.

And there's some good books, and you can read about that.

And so he encouraged us to find out for ourselves.

At 1945, you won a place at Clare College, Cambridge,

to read geology and zoology.

Now, you got it on a scholarship. - Yes.

That's a blinking big deal, when you get a scholarship.

What do you remember of the moment of finding out?

My father said, "Look, if you want to go to Cambridge,

"you have to get a scholarship because I can't afford it."

Right. - And so, I worked pretty hard

to try to get the scholarship which colleges gave.

And I remember it was during the war,

and my father was... I was digging an allotment.

My father came running down from the house where we lived,

waving a telegram and saying "You've got it, my son, you've got!"

Remarkable. - And I was off to Cambridge.

When you were working on the natural history programmes,

it also became, did it not, something of a routine for you to...

I mean to bring your work home? Not to put too fine a point on it.

The house was full of animals, wasn't it? - We had a whole host of different things,

all of which would be... Wouldn't be allowed by law now.

But I had... There were lemurs, oh, lungfish,

parrots, hummingbirds, all sorts of things.

One of my favourites was a little pair of bush babies.

You know, bush babies, they're like... - Yes. - like tiny little monkeys about that big.

Primitive monkeys. And what the male does in order to establish his home

and make him feel good and, you know, thinking we might produce some kids,

would be to pee on his hands.

He would pee on his hands, like that, you see, rub them together, and then go over,

all over the furniture and all up the walls

as well as his hollow log and everything else you see,

which gave a nice, a nice homely atmosphere, you know.

But then, friends would come to dinner

and I'd open the door and I'd see the wife of the friend's

dilate her nostrils, you know. "That is not mulligatawny soup."

You know, and so a bit of a problem there but, in fact,

we had I think about 14 births of these little babies.

Did you? - Oh, we did. And I tell you, a baby bush baby...

It's time now to welcome another guest. Joining us to share with us

his own treasures of the natural world

is a fellow passionist, naturalist, conservationist,

and collector extraordinaire, it has to be said, David,

please welcome Chris Packham.

Welcome, thanks for coming. Nice to see you. - Hello, David.

Chris, and I said you're a collector extraordinaire,

just you've brought some treasures. Show us one of the pieces you've brought.

I have, look at this, I mean, there's always a romance in these sorts of things.

This is a fossil shark tooth, a megalodon tooth,

which belonged to an extinct species now,

many times the size of a great white.

But when I handle that, I can't help but

try and transport myself back in time

to imagine the world that this animal was living in.

And, at the same time, I mean look at the... It's just perfect, isn't it,

when you run your finger along that serrated edge.

You've got to have that in your drawer, haven't you? - You have.

I was gonna say, "Are you impressed?" - You call that...?

Yeah. - I want it back. - Yes. All right.

We won't mix them up. Yours is cream, mine is black. What a beauty.

What a beautiful thing that is. - Amazing.

But there is this, competitive thing about collecting

which we won't go into. - No. - But there... - We don't need to.

But I have got the biggest. - I was gonna say, boys will be boys.

Do you know what this is? - Let's have a look.

Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do know what it is, yeah.

It's been inside a dinosaur. It's a gastrolith, isn't it? - It is.

So, this is a stone which it swallowed,

I presume we don't know which species but...

I do. - You do? It came from the carcass, did it?

I don't know which species?

How very daring, Chris Packham. - Well, yes.

But we can't tell from the stone, which species. - That's better. - But you'll know

if you found it in association with the rest of the fossil.

I did. I did. - Well, go on then. - Don't tell me it's a T-rex gastrolith.

It's a Seismosaurus. - Oh, Seismosaurus. - A Seismosaurus, which at the time

was the biggest known dinosaur, which it isn't any more, of course,

but at the time it was, and I went to the excavation.

And you have this near-complete

skeleton with the back bone and the ribs,

and there between the ribs, in the position of the stomach,

was like, half a sack load of pebbles.

But if you look at it, you can see that it's got an extremely high polish, doesn't it?

It's beautifully polished and this was polished inside the gut

of a giant dinosaur. I mean, there isn't anything better than that, is there?

It really is a lovely... - That... Hey! Hey!

David, do tell me about this splendid thing here and how you came upon it.

Yes. Yes, well, I've got the biggest tooth there.

And you haven't got a bigger bird's egg than that, do you? - No,

I haven't. And that one, I've seen many of these. That on is pretty good.

It was broken but it's put together very well.

In fact, let's just see the moments on film, it was captured,

when you found this and put this egg together.

The best method of starting seemed to be the same as you use when you begin on a jigsaw puzzle.

To lay out everything, face up, on the ground.

To fasten them temporarily, I used adhesive tape.

The egg began to appear even bigger than I had imagined.

At the end of an hour I had two halves.

And to my joy, they fitted together perfectly.

All I have to do is say, thank you for bringing your wonderful treasures,

Chris Packham. - Thank you.

David, its time now to hear from a very good friend of yours.

Dame Jane Goodall. - David Attenborough has inspired millions of young people

to become interested and sometimes even to take up careers

in some aspect of learning about the natural world, protecting the natural world.

And he's got an amazing ability to get people involved.

I remember watching,, one programme

and he's after some very rare frog,

and, finally, you see on the screen a shaking water lily leaf.

And with that breathless voice he turns to the camera and says,

"The frog was sitting there a minute ago."

Nobody else could get away with that.

Well, probably one of the highest tributes for anyone working in the natural world

is to have a newly discovered species named after them.

In fact, David, I know you have quite a number already named after you.

It's your birthday, so one of the world's foremost drag only experts

wanted to give you a little gift. Here is Klaas-Douwe Dijkstra.

On your 90th birthday I want to wish you

not only many more years of good health and of broadcasting

but I wish everyone more of you.

And to thank you, I've named together with colleagues

a dragonfly in your honour.

Acisoma attenboroughi. Your new dragonfly is from Madagascar

and I'm happy to report that your dragonfly is actually very common.

Every farmer can find it in their paddy. Every fisherman can see it in his pond.

Every schoolchild can find it in the yard.

It simply is another one of those species that is unique

but no one noticed that it was.

But now, people can go out there and say, "Hey look,

"that is Sir David's dragonfly." Thank you, and happy birthday.

That's very nice. - And here it is.

There it is, David. A very special little birthday gift.

Acisoma attenboroughi. Rather beautiful.

Don't you think? - I think it's stunningly beautiful.

Dragonflies are magical insects, aren't they?

You know, they date back for 300 million years.

Just like that, yeah. What a thrill. - Extraordinary.

As we said when we began talking this evening,

you are still filming all over the world,

indeed, you're doing Planet Earth I] which is a big new series.

Well, Planet Earth H, when the idea was put up

people said, you've done it all.

But the fact is that when you really start researching,

you find things that you haven't done at all.

It's going to be thrilling, new and exciting.

Incredible. So, so much more of that to look forward to,

and we are almost out of time tonight, but before we go

here are a few more happy birthday messages.

Sir David Attenborough, we love having you on the show,

and beyond that I'd just like to say, thank you.

Thank you for everything you've done on television over the years.

You've really changed this country

and given us such an extraordinary awareness of the world around us.

Have a very happy birthday. - Happy 90th birthday, David Attenborough.

I've grown up watching your films

and now my children have grown up watching your films

and I'm very proud to have been on this Earth as the same time as you.

Sir David, this is Sting behind this beard.

I'm somewhere in the Tundra. I've been a fan of yours since

your search for the Komodo dragon, I think in 1956.

You've been an inspiration and a wonder to me. Happy birthday and many happy returns.

Thank you so much for the many years of inspirational,

motivational and ground-breaking television,

for spurring me and millions of others

to want to be better custodians of the planet.

From me and the hundreds of thousands of other people

who've been inspired to go out, buy a pair of jungle boots and some camouflage

and maybe a blue shirt, thank you. Thank you so much for all you've given us

and a very, very happy birthday.

Happy Birthday, David! - From all of us here on the Springwatch team.

Sir David, it is an absolute honour

for me to be able to wish you a happy birthday

and also to thank you from the bottom of my heart

for all your brilliant programmes. You must pause to reflect on this special day,

on the incredible impact that you've had around the world.

You are an absolute legend and have changed the face of conservation for the future.

I wish you a very happy birthday on this milestone day.

You're fantastic, you're such a hero. You've been such an inspiration.

Not only to all of us, but more specially to me.

You go on forever, and I hope you do

because you are priceless. Happy birthday.

So, we know you keep making these extraordinary programmes

that we all love so much, and thank goodness for that.

You're not taking your foot of the gas. But I wonder, it is... It's hard work filming.

It's really hard work. What is it that inspires you

to get up every morning and go and work so hard.

Making programmes is just huge fun.

I mean, not only go to exciting places,

do exciting things, you do it with pals.

You do it with people, you know, who are a joy to work with.

And making programmes is, as you know, I mean, they're very much a team thing.

And I feel constantly embarrassed about the amount of credit I get

for the amount of work that many, many other people are actually,

in fact, doing. So, I've had a singularly, unbelievably fortunate time.

Well, I'm afraid I might embarrass you a little more,

because I'm going to say, on behalf of not just everybody in the studio,

but on behalf of everybody watching at home,

and the hundreds of millions of people around the world

who love, from the bottom of their hearts, what you do.

Thank you for doing it, and happy birthday. - Thank you very much indeed.

Happy birthday. - Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you very much.