EPADavid Attenborough in a 2021 photo
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 21:36
Some 69 years after his first TV appearance, Sir David Attenborough’s warm voice could be heard again on BBC One tonight. Wild Isles is about the British Isles and is said to be the last on-location wildlife series for the 96-year-old biologist. And the possible conclusion of his impressive TV career is politically sensitive.
The documentary series is not only about the natural beauty of the United Kingdom. Climate change, deforestation and the sharp decline in biodiversity are also discussed. The series has been funded in part by a number of conservation organizations. There is internal discussion at the BBC about how desirable that is, the conservative newspaper The Telegraph reported this week.
According to the progressive newspaper The Guardian, the public broadcaster has “feared right-wing criticism” decided not to broadcast an episode of Wild Isles on TV. The BBC denies that. It was always the intention that this separate episode was only released digitally, is the reading of the management.
Nature is political
According to ecologist and filmmaker Ruben Smit, the fact that a nature documentary leads to political wrangling “fits very well into the image of the time”. According to him, nature has simply become a politically charged subject. “The productions we have made about the Wadden Sea, black-tailed godwit and Oostvaarderplassen have also all led to political dialogue. Up to parliamentary questions and actions.”
In 2018, for example, a festival in Harderwijk decided not to show Smit’s documentary De Nieuwe Wildernis after threats on social media. At the time, there was fierce discussion about whether or not to shoot large grazers in nature reserve De Oostvaardersplassen, where the wildlife film was shot.
Attenborough: It was easy
Such polarization around nature and environmental issues must have been unthinkable for the young Attenborough at the time. “Wherever I went, there was wilderness,” he reflected in 2020’s A Life On Our Planet on his early days as a wildlife filmmaker. In the early 1950s, the genre was still in its infancy. “It was pretty easy. People had never seen armadillos or sloths on TV.”
Attenborough thought this was the best time of his life. He traveled the world and came face to face with the most exotic animals. “This pioneer introduced the world to nature through TV,” says Smit. “Thanks to his enthusiasm and knowledge, the world has become aware of the fragility of the earth.”
KippaAttenborough in de serie Living With Dinosaurs, uit 2000
The Dutchman is a big fan of the TV maker, whom he calls “a god in my world”. Attenborough’s documentaries inspired him to do the same. In addition to his iconic voice and typical British humor, Smit also praises the involvement with nature that his example shows.
Activize me
Initially, the presenter was not activist. He especially wanted to show how beautiful all plants and animals are, an attitude that was also criticized by the ecological movement. “I didn’t expect things to go seriously wrong until about a decade ago,” Attenborough said in an interview with Nieuwsuur a few years ago.
Since then he has been a fervent advocate of increasing biodiversity and tackling global warming. Smit cites Attenborough’s speech at the COP26 climate summit as an example. “Then we saw a man in his nineties standing on the barricades.”
“In my life I have experienced a terrible degradation of nature,” he told the world leaders in the room:
Now British media are speculating that Attenborough probably made his last documentary on location. It is unclear what exactly that is based on, but given his advanced age, traveling is becoming increasingly difficult.
Puffins
If it is indeed the last, then the presenter closes with a scoop. Never before has he shot a documentary ‘at home’. He will show puffins, golden eagles and killer whales in and around the British and Irish islands.
Smit calls the choice for the United Kingdom surprising. He is curious to what extent attention is paid to tackling climate change. “It is good that there is a political dialogue about the role of nature conservation organizations in these types of productions,” says the documentary maker. Transparency in this regard is very important, he says. “But I would think it would be a bad thing if politically sensitive topics were not shown on TV because of such a discussion.”
