David Attenborough on His Decades-Long Career | Natural History Masterclass

[Applause] I will good evening ladies and gentlemen I'm gonna start by making a confession to you I am here for the sole purpose of impressing my children that's it I've been in show business I worked out for 37 years now and I have kids who they're grown up they've grown up with all manner of famous people in their lives not one of them has taught them to so much as blink until tonight so normally at the dinner table you know they don't pay me much attention and I happen to remark I've been asked to interview Sir David Attenborough and honestly stunned silence possibly even close to a Frizzle of respect because he's the man responsible for first televising snooker and but that is what I think about I grew up in the United States and every summer we would come and stay with my English grandparents in Surrey and inexplicably we would watch a game played with coloured balls on a black-and-white television which on a Saturday we then had to go and pay for at Radio rentals it was it was an astonishing thing and I thought who is the genius that thought of that well it's tonight's guests and I would have thought that was enough to celebrate any man but my children weirdly knew nothing about this whatsoever no they knew two things first of all it seems as though David has made one or two quite popular Natural History programs and also my son has been invited to a David Attenborough rave is that fantastic David Attenborough rave it just sounds like one of those examples of words that don't really go together like Greek economist don't worry I'm not here along em over the course of a remarkable career spanning over six decades David has traveled the globe and revolutionized how we see the natural world and I think he has met most of the animal kingdom who's sadly couldn't be with us this evening I'm sure they sent their best wishes right now don't you're obviously a broadcasting legend so I'm not gonna sit here and dish you but is there any truth to the rumor that you bagged your first job in TV without having really seen any yes I see one one program what was it it was a play by on we transmitted live got what it was called it was I hadn't got a television set my wife to be my girlfriend had as parents have I saw that and I applied for job in radio and I didn't get a interview and a fortnight later someone wrote to me from the BBC and said we've got this new thing called television people are being quite rude about it but we think there could be something in it would you would you write come to an Alexander Palace and see if you'd be interested about 1952 yeah and it was then known as the tox department well it sounds like sort of radio with pictures well that's good indeed so but what another name would you give to which was it was effectively all nonfiction television and there were about a dozen know a lesson that eight television producers who did all nonfiction and this exclude sport and an outside broadcast but all the rest I mean religion politics quizzes cooking I'm knitting all that sort of and I used to do sometimes it was all live I should say and I would produce maybe one or two programmes a week and that was it that was quite intense it wasn't always like that but we did anything and people would come into the canteen and said we've got a problem and the Radio Times just going to press him we've got absolutely nothing for those since Tuesday at 7:30 anybody got any ideas people probably don't realize why we call it the gallery and television but - it was literally wasn't it was that's where it comes from so it's a classic showbiz story in lots of ways because you were the understudy who became the star in a sort of way I mean you stepped in front of the camera when the original presenter of zoo quest was a gentleman called Jack Lester he was taken on well yes and you were producing is that right yes it was London Zoo sent out an expedition to collect animals I mean we cooked it up with this chap lovely man called Jack left he was a expert on reptiles and I said look I want to go to Africa and he and he said yeah well come on will and we cooked up this idea and the idea was that we would film Jack collecting things and then when we got back we would show them live in the studio and the first program this was 1954 the first program poor Jack was very ill and so the second program was going on the next next week it was live and Jack would dropped out and the director of television said you will have to give him do it and go no staff no fee I remember he said yeah and so I did and then I did the rest of the series and then the following year we're gonna do it again because it was quite a success but again Jack was going to do it and again he went out and but this time he came burial indeed just before the transmission well halfway of doing the expedition and so I took everywhere that was too good a racket to let it go and and Jack was very keen on saying you know okay you carry on that first time when it's cameras go live and the red light goes on that very first time do you remember that were you terrified or did you take to it well I've been doing live programs as a producer as the director director so the atmosphere of the studio which of course as you know and many it's champagne I mean it's really very very exciting and particularly when you know it's live and particularly I mean when you drove two away from the evening you know you're coming out from Alexandra Palace around the North Circular and if there was that eerie glow on those curtains you know there were no people there with a television set and they've been watching you there to see your program and you almost wanted to stop and knock on the door say he was alright but it was it was champagne self yeah but you Sinclair the world has changed now because I mean that program zoo quest there you are going to collect animals for the zoo I mean it seems unfathomable unfathomable to us now as a Natural History Program doesn't it oh yes um zoos don't do that anymore there was a fak end of an old Victorian tradition really and quite right too I mean the natural world under enough problems as it is without people going out try and catch more things but yeah but it was in those days we didn't have long enough lenses to get close-ups of animals at a distance so the only way you're going to see the close-up of say a gaboon viper you know is about to strike a cobra outside you couldn't film that so the thing you do would you have to do it in the studio which is what I said the excuse was there was a chaplain zoo you understood about cutting cobras and gaboon Vipers and so on he would pick it up and that was on film and then in order to get the details and you have in the studio I know the thing that you kept looking for in fact one of the reasons why you did zoo quest you were looking for a white necked rock fowl yes did you ever find it yes we did actually I mean and we I remember we actually said we would call it by its proper name which was picked authorities gymnast cephalus and this quite unimportant Berdych the only qualification they had was that nobody had ever seen no European that was a lot so we actually caught quite early on and in the in the expedition was three months out there but we didn't there's a Honda Fit that's yeah first program here are they going out looking pick us out is Jim celibacy and then at the end you didn't see the damn thing but at the end I'd say well so we continued our quest for the fatality and the cameraman and I Charlie legacy was thick with the cow film camera we were in this little bread open mg driving along Oxford Street I remember which you could do that and we were bit worried about this pick apart each gymnast cephalus I mean was the great British public cannot become frightened excited by that and we stopped by the lights the bus driver let down he said hello Dave he said if you'd said at the beginning that he's already got was it about presenting that made you want to continue that was a fun I mean I my job as a television producer and the zoo crest stuff was the thing you did half the year the other half year I produced prime minister's broadcast I produce quizzes and all sorts of things and travel programs but it will see it was the spring of television I mean we were just starting you know only one network you know 405 lion pictures and and you just you couldn't tell yourself away from it it was so exciting and every time and you people used to just think of programs and dream em up and say look what about a program on the heraldry first class I mean that's a wonderful time to be there with lots and lots of firsts and M presumably I mean your whole career has been full of firsts but the first time you saw for example a komodo dragon or the first time that you saw an a creature that had not been filmed and shown in two people sitting rooms and must have been a moment of supreme excitement that shows saying to people what I've got unbelievable I mean it was you see people haven't seen anything I mean the Komodo dragon no had never been seen on film that's not quite true the Americans in 1920s who actually were the first person job to actually notice that there was a this unknown species so so far they had told it but it hadn't been filmed on had nobody in television seen and those that film that they took in the trenches nobody'd see that either so effectively this was the first time and and it was you know I was able to say quite truthfully and honestly you know nobody's seen this before you hear is the biggest desert in the world and everybody said yes astounding and what a privilege though mind you it absolutely barmy I mean the way we did it maybe took us three months and I just pushed off I remember the the boss of the year Chaplin looked half the business of Tears they talks about for some reason other if you know the BBC would be very typical of those days he was an expert in Icelandic sagas said what's what budget you want I said well I really not a lot because you know feeding on rice you know I I know how long how many programmes and I said well I think about six probably yes right now back for Christmas no health and safety briefing not at all I can't speak a word of Indonesian I mean it was absolutely barmy did you have to write home and say we're all fine it's all carrying on if you wanted to reply that was three weeks to get a letter home there's no there's no radio there's no telephone you're just I said goodbye to my dear wife and I'll see you in Christmas pregame should be made like that now the wonderful thing is when I watch you and you have moments like you know crocodile coming at you or you meet a Komodo dragon for the first time you don't seem to be fazed did you realize early on that you were not afraid you were much more enthralled than ever showing any fear I'm afraid the cameras on the on the animals and the big way you know you've got these binoculars looking straight at the camera sort of thing [Laughter] clip from zoo quest shall we have a look they well the locals recommended that we should use a dead goat as bait once in the bush we began to build a trap using materials gathered from nearby as I recorded in my journal and now all we had to do was to wait there was a rustle in the bush there was the dragon our first sight of this magnificent monster and down came the door hastily we piled boulders on the door so that he couldn't lift it up we've got him look slightly terrified there's many wonderful shots of you hiding behind bushes the audience has got wise to this sort of thing right so you don't see that anymore that's very much a period shot of the 50s looking straight at the camera and pretending you're looking at the dragon you know I think it's a shame I think we should have film if you just behind different bushes around the world there was a brief hiatus for you from presenting us in 1965 you were appointed as controller of the newly launched BBC two you're responsible for all sorts of experimental Commission so I suppose multiplies them yes and Kenneth Clarke's civilization and not to mention first regular color broadcasts in Europe so I just want to talk about the snooker just for a brief minute because I was made to watch this as a child but my grandparents didn't have a color television and it was because you had some spirit color televisions that you decided to put this new crown is that true well it is true that that we hadn't put snooker on television at all because of the problem I was seeing it in college yeah and equally true is that we had very little few can't elevate color cameras but even or not we were very short of equipment and with with just three cameras you could I'm a snooker ball table which you know how big that is you could get hours and hours and hours of television and I remember talking to the to the commentators for the first one and I said of course I mean we're doing this because of color and number of people with color televisions it's very small so I said look you'll have to guide that people are watching it in black and white and he said yes of course do understand so I think it was the very first or the second program in which he actually have this other breath you deliver in her used to say I [Laughter] have to tell if my father who was Danish was baffled by this kind of broadcasting he didn't how did you take to being in charge of a channel I mean presumably were you able to make programs at the same time no no no we're not was on - but but it was a Billy it was absolutely blissful I mean you were kind enough to mention some titles which was successful but the whole point about BBC 2 was that it was experimental and that we would not do any program Mike what I said at the beginning was we will do no programs that are black and white carbon copies of what's on black and white we would people would turn on the set and they will know immediately that that's BBC's you've just some content and I don't want any repetition know what's on other networks so that we did just new things all the time now people say oh frightfully brave that was but it wasn't actually because the number we want BBC - people forget BBC - you had to go buy a new set in order to see BBC - if you had BBC one it was four or five lines BBC Two's on 65 and and you had to do a great tanking switch so BBC two had a very odd audience but we we appealed to it on the grounds that it was different and if it wasn't interesting it must have been exciting because I mean a lot of television is decided by a committees but presumably you could have had an idea in the bath and think Oh we'll make oh and is it true that you did actually get rid of an animal well you were the controller of BBC - because you did you not get rid of the mascot there was a there's the kangaroo and heard Joey called custard I think it was yes it was all over the note paper I remember I mean they were they'd embossed kangaroo and I went to the I was given this as network's note paper and that looks like these programs for kiddies you know I don't know if it's true people were you there for the opening of BBC - no I only when it was I think on the opening night that was a real kangaroo and the lights all went out and it got stuck in the lift classic BBC story so did you did you continue because of your passion for natural history were you able to continue to Commission programs well yes I commissioned a series that was called the world about us it then became the natural world and one thing other it's still running actually and you wouldn't believe how funny was the television was in the 50s you know there was no 13 there was no 1 hour 50 minute documentary of any kind on BBC one or ITV and so BBC killed one of the pioneering things did it would start a tradition of showing 50-minute programs so we made all kinds of I mean I remember that one of the things we made in the documentary series it was called one pair of eyes and it was deliberate that in fact you took someone who had a bombing idea of some sort and allowed him to have a producer and cameraman sort and make a programme about what he thought you should do about bullfighting or in support of it you know or whatever something odd and there was no one our programme documen document on BBC one and do you burn the loss of that that's slightly more married time you it was fun but nothing stays the same and it can't remain the same and and that was that particular moment in television in which it was had this sort of champagne feel to it and well let's have a look at some of the programs that she went on to make after your role at BBC two [Music] the South American rainforest the richest and most varied assemblage of life in the world those are hollow mark is up there there are around 50 different kinds of monkeys in these forests as soon as the male see a movement in the eggs they will apparently eat them each male may take a dozen or so but he doesn't swallow them instead they go into his vocal sac that runs down the front of his throat and there they develop and wriggle after some weeks their extraordinary vocal pregnancy comes to an end and here is that amazing birth once again in slow motion a crab like this is carrying about hundreds thousand and she has to shed them directly into the sea if they had to hatch but that's a hazardous business order because although her far distant ancestors came from the sea she herself is a land and she can't swim so if a wave sweeps her away she will assuredly drug but nonetheless her compulsion to launch next generation is irresistible and above me rises the biggest down it contains enough concrete to construct a whole city to house four million people it will make a lake which will set upstream for a hundred and forty kilometres to persuade females to come close and admire his plumes he sings the most complex song Hickey managed and he does that by copying the songs of all the other birds here's around him such as the kookaburra he also in his attempt to axing his rivals incorporates other songs that he hears him the forest that was a camera from Turkey and now a camera with a motor drive dr. Karron now the sound of foresters and their chainsaws working nearby and it's very very rare that there is any violence within them so it seems really very unfair that lamb should have chosen the gorilla to symbolize all that is aggressive and violent and that's the one thing that the gorilla is not and that we are ah I have to say David watching that frog giving birth there's not a woman in the room that's not thinking I'm so glad nature didn't give me that form of reproduction what do you feel like when you see your younger self do you think you could possibly have predicted not just the scale of all the work that you've done but the impact that it has had no and to start with of course you didn't because in the 50s it was a minority thing I mean the number of sets that people had was very small but it grew and it grew and it grew and so you've got used to it I mean in 2011 you broke the record for the most viewed Natural History Program with frozen planets 2016 you broke it again with planet Earth - I don't know how you feel about beating your own records it's like Mo Farah running against himself well of course Natural History programs aren't made in the way that we made those even life on Earth was was comparatively small unit I mean Blue Planet - there were 50 people you know working on directors several directors and 20 cameraman that editors and so on and so it's a very big deal and my responsibility is entirely with the words now and on that particular series in the time I write the commentary and record the commentary but the shaping of the program the credit to that which I regard as great I mean I think they're marvelously put together and it doesn't belong to me it belongs to those people who did that and because my face and voice is associated with it I get all the credit how nice well oh yes but but you know I'm comfortable really you know I mean everybody's I made reply to you I didn't make blue palette - James honey born they do planet - the whole group of them but I think you're being modest about your contribution what do you I mean what's astonishing is the age bracket sort of 16 to 34 we much more popular than x-factor really the reality shows love island or any of those things what it what do you put it down - I put it down age group because kids I mean small children are riveted by the natural world there's it's something in us we're a part of it kids know that they look at these things it's alive how does it breathe what does it feed on how does it produce its babies and and once that's in your mind you can't get rid of it and the people it's such a privilege to make these programs because I get a lot of letters but I get a letter I might get a letter from a seven-year-old saying I love that this time the other but I can equally well the next letter could be from a professor of 75 who said I'm very interested in that particular action how did you get this often what does it mean because for every single one of us at any time in our lives that are things you don't know about the natural world and it's beautiful it's unpredictable it tells you things you didn't know it doesn't try and sell you anything and it doesn't ask for your vote now what more do you want [Laughter] so of course my children hugely excited to meet you this evening what I want to know is it have you been invited to a David Attenborough rave cut of the profits they all have masks of you and the whole place has done up as a as a as a jungle theme apparently and everybody is you for the evening I let's talk a bit about I mean you're being very modest about your rain contribution but your narrative style I wonder whether that has changed because you must be aware of how it's no longer a niche thing to be interested in Natural History it's very mainstream and I wonder if it changes because you get a letter from a 7 year old and a 75 year old professor and you know you need to address both of them well I think I think if you've been to produce it helps a lot and I when in the 50s we were putting films together you were in the cutting room and you're getting the shots and the hey I'm up on pegs and you were putting him together in a certain order to tell a story and your aim was to have no commentary at all what you wanted to do was the pictures to tell the story because they could all you had to do was to restrict your words to the bits of information that were necessary to understand the pictures and first art you don't need adjectives yeah if you'd known to say it's wonderful and so on people can see it and you don't have to so you cut down the commentary to a minimum and if you when I look at stuff I did years ago if I have a criticism which I do on all thoughts but almost always I've said about too many words if you had to cut down that by another ten percent of the words you've done better and that's so it's it's it's editing the pictures to tell the story and you just add those little bits of information that's necessary keep it down to a minimum and this that our difficulty in balancing up because you as you say you want the picture to speak for themselves but you're all educating as well as entertaining is there a moment when you think I know so much about this creature but actually I'm like I need to tell them less in a way I need to just let the creature make those yes yes absolutely I mean if if if the thing tells enough to make the majority of the audience hang don't interfere with it yeah well I have to say one of the standout moments for me for audiences in fact it was voted virgin TVs must-see moment at the virgin TV British Academy Television Awards it was the snakes versus iguana chase am i right unbelievable I tell you what let's revisit this moment also with a few familiar @tv faces on flat ground a baby iguana can outrun a racer snake but others are waiting in ambush all our sneak of guarding oh my god Oh No nature is brutal nature is hate snakes another hatchling has its first glimpse of a dangerous world just stare down me oh don't bother Gary no don't come out yeah he wants to have a look around have a look around behind you before you go mate a snake's eyes aren't very good but they can detect movement don't move so if the hatchling keeps its nerve it may just avoid detection easy easy oh Christ Oh I thought he'd be this poor old bugger oh and that wicked it's gone oh he slipped oh my words Go Go kicked him in the dick [Music] flippin Eck is cutting coke to last encounter we want to do is get to his mummy yeah he's got no idea where if he's got parents or parents they're not there a near miraculous escape I see right and that their answer of course is you see first of all there was the director a woman director who had gone to dropping us in the early series and had spotted this happening at the end at the time was she doing something else and she had the wit to say we've got to go back next year because that was the thing and secondly of course you had the editor was a skilled Hollywood skills the way you you cut away the way you build attention the way you bring up to a climax the thing oh it's come to be killed and so on and then you had music by Hollywood composer you know so the end if that that's a powerful thing the last thing you wanted was a commentary I mean those words I hope when they come well there because you need that bit of information but what's amazing you see you'll see their people on their savers answer more fighting like mad saying oh he wants his mommy or maybe doesn't know where his mommy is we absolutely we are all cheering an iguana not something I ever thought oh yeah but it doesn't surprise you that that we identify so closely no not at all it doesn't surprise me I mean it's only too easy really particularly if you edit it in the way that we have edited I mean well the music is fantastic and I looked it up it's the composer's Jacob che and Josh Ackley and so it's a confection in a way and the kind of a Hollywood movie tradition it's like a James Bond movie yeah with the iguana on our side but yeah but all the dramas there you see you know created well the social media engagement with this clip I mean it was absolutely huge event we have a rather we have a handy slide show exactly how it took the internet by storm I mean it just people just loved it look at the emotion on the girl's face I love this because they're observing nature and then we're observing them I think it's rather it's rather modest I really like that your programs have been shown in over 30 international territories imagine you cannot avoid being aware of the impact that your shows have on today's is there anywhere that you can go that you're not known well I suppose people people have the music genre worldwide and so yes people do so what sort of things will come up to you what are the sort of things that they want to ask you nothing much I mean just stand there I mean they do can I remember taxi driver turn on solo and he said one of ask you a question I said No I hope it was a long jump which new technology has been one of the hallmarks of your career so we talked about broadcasting in color then introducing audiences to 3d television you've always been a leader in and a pioneer and technology and television and broadcasting in fact I hope that you are the only person to have won a BAFTA for shows in black and white color HD 3d and 4k so let's take a quick look at how technology has played a role in your programs there have been a lot of changes in the way that we've filmed the natural world during the last 50 60 years [Music] this one was among the most brilliantly colored of all chameleons in the world his eyeballs have bright rust red and his body and legs striped and launched with a vivid green its camouflage is exceptional because it can change its skin colour to match its surroundings [Music] it's easy to imagine some 12-foot species Americans alike and I meet Adan lying basking on the rocks in the early morning Sun [Music] the colony is constructing a new nest to get their shots we had to tear apart the nest to get the ants to work out in the open these days [Music] most animals like us can't see infrared and that meant that with these cameras we could now watch them behaving perfectly normally in the dark [Music] slow motion photography enables us to see details that we can't see with the naked eye marine iguanas can maintain their body temperature just about as constantly as I can but when they go into the cold sea their temperature falls very rapidly many birds that we might think a plane are almost gone in ultraviolet light [Music] so George read in the beginning in zoo quest you had to get the animals into the studio because you simply couldn't get close enough so presumably all the changes in technology have changed now what are the sorts of things that you think that has made just the most enormous its be huge the one big change was from film which you couldn't see you I want you to shut it to electronics and I mean just underwater for example when I felt started filming underwater we had a hundred foot load camera it would talk 2 minutes 40 it was in the sort of can with a bit with a with a bit of glass on the front and why viewfinder which have you in the proximity of what you're looking at and if you shot something once you talk two minutes 40 seconds always you had to go up back to the surface and that take you've got to decompress you know you've got to take the lid off take the camera out put another thing in shutting on it and they go down it and that would take you half an hour often on aha if you have depends how deep you were so it was once you've got electronic camera that could go on filming for 12 hours it made a huge difference but also it's there more things than that the fact that you could see it immediately after you shot it I mean when we taught those dragon photo film so we had to put that and onto the aircraft and you wouldn't know for three weeks because in the beginning the BBC had required you to do 35mm film and you persuaded them to do 16 didn't you because the cameras were later but you couldn't possibly have known as you're putting it in the can know whether you'd actually got the shot and indeed on in Paraguay I remember we got film back after I think it was about five weeks and after we went back into the into the jungle and I came out again and we got a telegram into the nearest face with a report and it said we regret to inform you that all shots on the 400 mil lens have a hot spot that means you there was a big wide spot in the middle of it and it was all unusable so all the closeouts we had one usable oh yeah absolutely heartbreaking the exhaustive really but but not only that and there's the as it were the obvious advantages of becoming electronic but the other advantage is that now you see with electronic hammer I mean it's they're much more sensitive you can give me you can throw in the dark what's lower light conditions and you could with celluloid not only that but you you can actually take a small camera the size of an apple less and put it on on a bough of a tree where you know birds can tune in just leave it and leave it there yeah and so and you can actually watch it with the talent with transferred transmitted pictures to your monitor you can see whether you've got shown or not don't have moments but then you're not disturbing the tree you can put it on and now you can put it on a drone all those aerial shots which used to have to have a bear aircraft you the drone will take this little camera and you can get all the aerial shots you want and and so it goes on I mean that change to electronics transformed the whole and presumably has an impact on on discovering new species I mean I thinking in particular about going down into the deep to that part of the planet that fewer people have been to them have been to the moon this is full of wonder it's to me it's like a place where art students have been allowed to go crazy and design fish it's just wonderful so presumably with this new technology that is when you get astonishing bioluminescent and that was coupled with a new technology of deep-sea craft a huge privilege I remember the first time I went down into one of these submersibles you had to lie on your stomach I hear you and your great fella pallava about how long you were going to stay under one to another and you had to compress and you had to do think about air conditioner take and you'd looked out through a squint to a little think of science but our tea plate and you I could only go down for sentence or period before you have to come back and well now see the blue planet 1 & 2 we had a marvelous submersibles in which it's like a huge bubble of perspex transparent you sit there alongside the pilot and you can see all around you and you're the same pressure and temperature as you are on land because they have a rebreathing system so when you get in it's all clamped down and you are breathing and recycling in there and you're getting the oxygen back and so on and you sit there did you borrow chocolate and you think I mean I went down nowhere near as as all Daugherty who was the woman who directed the deep in - he went down very very far I didn't know that but I've been pretty far it's breathtaking I mean we talked a little bit about fear and you said you do have fears see I would find that terrifying because you don't know what's going to come at you through the deep I mean there are many creatures down there that we still don't know what that know so it does the Wonder overtake you and you leave the fear behind yeah I mean you're just there so and you know by and large animals don't aren't aggressive to you unless you would interfere with them I mean they what does this be gained from that point of view I mean you know an animal behavior sense why should they attack you if they're if you are just there and being passive and taking it so did not you know I mean if they if they are getting worried nearly always what they do is push off and that's of course it's a bad technique on your part because you don't want to come all nice so you yeah so you you actually do what you can to be submissive and quiet and and just observer so they're not alarmed and that's all I mean I've been what's the worst thing I have been I've been charged by a rhinoceros when I was in their land robots destroyed the land rover around me that's quite bad I mean trigger to bring the a and say funny things once in 50 years what is wonderful is that you always sound so confident are you saying well this is now the anglerfish this is their particular way of procreating whatever how many times are there shots where you just think I have no idea what we're looking at we have to take it home but somebody else is gonna have to work almost this is the unromantic thing say almost never the fact is you should have done your homework my job is to know what what the possibilities are going to happen you want to know what they are and you shouldn't be caught aware unawares and I don't think I ever have in the serious way and not only that you just don't go out in from natural world and say when traffic or someone said I'm bound to see something interesting you you've got an idea as to what your problem is and you want to know that this is the moment when you want to see what monkeys self anointing you know for curing themselves of ears using special leaves and you traipse around with that that monkey troop would and there's a scientist that you've just who told you about it and he comes along and helps and says yes get out of this troop they're doing it and what and and you traipse around until you get it and if they do something else you don't say oh well I'll forget about the self anointing I will do out because that's not what you're about you've got a very strong ideas so what the function of why you are there and that's what you're after and that's what you you get and you get it and you talked about it when you gave paid great tribute to the astonishing production team who have won back time and you've won baptists personally but they have one bet as as well are there any shots that come to mind that you think that was particularly challenging for me and the team well there are any shots where you think oh my goodness I can't quite believe we got oh yes I mean lots because you've worked with them you know I mean that they are extraordinary people and and and when we were working on film you may be going to try and get some particular shot of I don't know a snake doing something and we'll be over in a trice and you don't know whether he's been changing the film or whether it's in focus or whatever and you say to the cameraman did you get it and yeah I said yes or no and I'd never known that to be one not one cameraman that said he's got it when he didn't do what I think is there must be so many bits that ended up on the cutting room floor I just wonder whether those are ever going to be picked up and used for something else yes well what they are is actually not quite as good as the shots that you put in because what you if it is a snake or monkey self anointing and you may shoot it three or four times and tell you you know until you quite sure you've got it right so what you rep left on the Sun on the cutting room floor is maybe 90% of what you shot but it's not as good as the 10% that you showed same eye for chuck it away there are occasional sequences which you actually you get a very good sequence but in the end the overall packet of the of the film it there's no place for us to the film would be too long and those who do put on the shelf and those who can bring out and put later only for the press to say oh they didn't shoot all that on that you know they took it they stopped that bust yeah is that annoying you when you get those coyotes I I think sometimes people criticize the scene because you know we get enough praise I mean I we do get a lot of praise and if you if they say something that and particularly if you think it's not deserved he shouldn't worry and do you keep a note of everything have you kept Diaries of all the things I kept journals yes on trips yes because that presumably I mean you see so many things will be impossible to remember everything yes absolutely so and particularly kind of write about it and and of course the thing is well I expect you keep Diaries but I I only do it on trips and the trouble is you do all these programs will you have interview programs you know explained exactly how it was with the guerrillas and after about 10 or 15 years you've been absolutely honest well how it happened you happened to read what actually happened selective memory now I got a quick question for the audience what do to pack Elvis Presley Kate Moss and Sir David Attenborough have in common anybody the answers holograms you know have your very own hologram at the Natural History Museum's yeah right that's true so we have a quick exclusive look at it one two three welcome to London's Natural History Museum this is part of the herb area one of the many rooms in the museum that's usually out of bounds to the public these covers contain thousands of planets residences but today there are all sorts of other various special objects and elsewhere in the museum that for the first time ever you yourself can handle them so go ahead pick a draw [Music] what did you think about it when they came and suggested to you what we want you to do is to be a hologram how did you feel oh I think it's fun doing all these new things I don't know how whether it'll catch on or not I don't know how popular it's going to be but it's fun to do and see how to do it and this is a system it is high definition of course it's a dimensions of course and it also not only that but it allows you to interact with you as viewer can pick things up and look at the object turn it around see what the skull looks like or you can actually enlarge it to a huge size or you can shrink it in size so we we look at the whale for example and you can see how its jaws open and it's how it filters exactly within as it well within the mouth and so this is a group but in order to get the hologram which you saw me I had to go to Seattle in the United States it's the head of Microsoft and and there they have a going to a studio which everything is green because you use an optical device which closes out the green and then when you wish and there are three hundred and nine camera rounds cameras looking at you you know all round and they they take and you have to speak your spiel and then they use these three hundred odd shots to compile statistically a an electronic formula which produces you and they can then make it do anything so it looks as though I'm actually in the Natural History Museum but I'm not I'm in this it's just a hologram that's in think of that do you have sometimes one camera with 16 mil film and now you've got more than 300 yes I I mean we MCC hike where that goes but then that's what we said 1952 you can see where this goes well I've been to the Natural History Museum many times I didn't even know there was this cryptogamic herbarium 780,000 specimens of mosses what I love is that you don't know which child you're going to wake up to deciding that that is the thing that they want to study what do you think this is going to contribute to an audience's experience of Natural History I think it'll produce a one-to-one relationship it that you could actually I mean the trouble is when you go into the museum there is tears there's that fossil or that stuff bird or whatever it and that's it and you can't get closer because it's a class and you can't see what the underside of it's like and so on and so it this enables you to take this object and to manipulate it look is that I'm side down see the underside of a trilobite that hasn't lived for what 450 million years and then you put it down on the table it walks away and so it means that you can have a one-to-one relationship with really important objects and of course there are objects that are unique in the world in New York and it means if this spreads that you'll be able to take and look at these objects in that sort of way and examine in that one-to-one way and get a feeling about it and which I'm sure will captivate them I'm sure to capitulate children to everybody well I wonder as well if whether it'll change the way in which specialists work because they know somebody is going to be able to do that to turn it around maybe they would look at it differently themselves yes yes I think I do I mean one of the things we look at in in this group that we've just done in the Natural History Museum is the jaw of a our pterosaur that the flying reptile that flew above the dinosaurs and it's the only one in the world you know and and it's a it's a kind of thing that nobody's ever seen before and I am sure that there are specialists in pterosaurs biology on the other side of the world who would be thrilled to be able to look at this thing about oh yeah I always wondered just how that chews how that fitted into the upper jaw and you can make it do then you can see it you see so I mean I don't that's not over exam that's not exaggerated I mean scientists are very clever people and they don't actually need all those kind of visual aids but a lot of lesser people do like me you know and so the thought I could be able to looking at an object in New Zealand Museum which I was I'm slightly worried now that people can do it to you now that you're a hologram can they move your mouse and how does it feel to see yourself in that way it's strange I mean I suppose you want to say modestly yes it's extraordinary but the fact of the matter is that if you work in our game okay you actually see yourself all the time yes I've seen myself from hideous angles whatever you there's not much you don't know about about your face the way you are and and if you working on making programs you will you've got these shots in which you do things and you've run them fat foots and forwards and so you know this character in there perfectly well he doesn't really have much connection with what you are but he buddy but you know him perfectly well what I love is that you're so up-to-date and you love all the technology but you don't do email don't drive no your mobile phone is the oldest one I think I've ever seen yeah honestly what why do you not what is the division in your private life that there isn't the new technology it doesn't seem to particularly appeal to you either stupidity I dare say mum some might say but actually there's quite enough for me to cope with it as it is I mean I get a lot I get 30 or 40 dollars a day a day five days six days a week I know that's quite enough to deal with and I know I've got lots of friends and I bet you how many how many emails you get a day oh it's hideous and it's from Lakeland that annoy me how I've ended up on their list exactly sure yeah CN so my view is if they want to say something to me write me a letter immediately says that's going to cost 20 P you know that cuts them down [Laughter] let's just talk a little bit about the negative impact that our actions are having on our planet it is one of the things that I think the younger generation are absolutely awake to and I think the finale of Blue Planet 2 was very important so you address this negative impact let's just have a quick look in some parts of the ocean it's estimated that there are now over 1 million pieces of plastic for every square mile and we're only beginning to discover just how seriously that affects marine life once in the ocean plastic breaks down into tiny fragments micro plastics along with all the industrial chemicals that have drained into the ocean these form a potentially toxic soup the really small organisms can mistake these tiny tiny plastics as food then the larger organisms eat the plankton the larger fish eat the smaller fish and so on and so forth dolphins are at the top of this food chain and it's now thought that pollutants may be building up in their tissues to such a degree that a mother's contaminated milk could kill her calf [Music] industrial pollution and the discarding of plastic waste must be tackled for the sake of all life in the ocean it makes me just want to solve and you know like embarrass you have you have loved the planet you have loved it for all the time that you have been showing us that its glories how does it make you feel to see those things I remember seeing it in actuality I wasn't but I was there went on on South Georgia and the Antarctic when there was a albatross chick which was and it takes a long time to grow because they're so big and the parents go off for up to three weeks at a time scouring the ocean in order to find food and the chick wakes their patient days to three weeks just silly in the blizzards and the parent come they met female came in and our crop was full and she opened her beak and the little chick begged and out from her mouth came a torrent of food and every single part of it was plastic and when you see that you've how profoundly can you be moved by that I mean and when you think of the implication of all over rather world that sort of thing is going on so you have an obligation to do something about it at least it at least you can do is to say what happens and do you feel I mean you have the most enormous reach do you feel you have a responsibility then to try well yes you do I mean it's in a way it's a complex thing isn't it how because you've got a huge privilege and you exploit this privileged I mean you can't exploit it politically you can't put political views on but when there's politics end and when does morality begin you know and so I think you have to be very careful about what you say and how you say it but there are overwhelming truths that cannot be avoided that you have to say and that was that was one of them in blue planet I must say that that I was I think all the team or all of us we were stunning I mean we felt powerfully about those things but we were astonished the effect it had and we've never mentioned it before we have but there was something about the timing of that particular program not only in as it were and the schedules has certainly got a big audience but the time in in the nation's awareness of the world I mean we are devastated by all sorts of problems at the moment which we need new enumerator cuz the world's in a rough state and people look to tell it to natural history programs in a way for some sort of consolation that at least that is something that's true and that's happening and it's often it's beautiful and so on but when that too has infected and it makes you aware what you've done are doing very directly we can't do much about some global warming or climate change directly but we can stop using plastic and and kids feel it's very strongly say shake their parents you know we've got to we mustn't use that you know look what it does to them to the pending the albatross under both and so all you have to do is to be honest about it there it is and if it hit the but it rang the bell at that particular moment why why it hasn't Bell before I don't know but but certainly did do this time and we were gratified that actually people see that we that is an important truth that has come to them through their television set and that it's something that they can do something about and something that they can ask the politicians on their behalf to do something about and that's the sort of communication that broadcasters ought to have I think with their public well I have to say that heartens me is the young people it's it's my kids generation who are now saying you can't you don't have to have that mom and don't have that in making you have another look and it is because of programs like yours just yesterday McDonald's announced that they're gonna stop using plastic straws so as well as feeling depressed maybe one could also think well that's what's good as we've woken up do you think we have yes but if it's if we have it's only the beginning I mean there's a long way to go when we really made a real mess of the world we really really have I mean animals I've been doing as you know for 50 60 years and and the animals I saw in the sort of numbers I saw 60 years ago have gone [Music] about it well I think there's a is there not a floating area of plastic in the oceans now it's the size of France it is a terrifying so do you think about those things when you're writing your commentary do you think how can I say this without sounding political or preachy but still trying to get the message across yes and and again one speaks to the team I didn't edit those pictures the film the production team did I supplied the words but but we all feel the same and I'm speaking as an absolute history unit down in Bristol the greatest unit of its kind you know in the world and our huge privilege to be working for them something that this country can be very proud of that unit message from this but they has has gone round the world so when you sit down to write your commentary do do you agonize over every word or does it sometimes just flow straight out never ever ever I don't know how it is with you but with me I sit with the script in front of me and television said and we go through it again and again and you've got a hit the right picture with the right word again again it's a it's a kind of carpentry it's a kind of joinery it's just an inspiration in that sort of sense it's hard work and I would and it must sound like hard work it's kind of if you're just chatting to is what it always sounds there so I'm gonna ask you to dust off your channel controller hat just for a second and pop it on imagine that you arguing to commissioned a program with the goal of empowering a meaningful environmental action what kind of program would it be well I mean you don't have to show what the consequences are and you can't I mean it's irresponsible just going on showing on the consequences without if you're going to do a program this is not what you asked me to do it's not just a three-minute segment which is but an hour's program well then you have to you can't go on gasps whoa whoa whoa you've got to say what can be done has to be an action plan that's right yeah and I again I have to be grateful that politicians are taking notice of it and name names but then in this government I mean whatever his colour was politically whatever is in power we've got to take this is serious this is serious when you look at all the clips that we've been showing I mean you have it's a astonishing range of material the scale of it is stupendous you have dedicated your life to Natural History introduce us the most amazing locations and animals I hadn't done that particular thing oh you can always think I mean whether for you if you look at a program of past I bet you're the same you can think I don't do that very well you know and I must and what on earth let me to put that through but but by and large in general terms I am very grateful for the opportunities that come my way I can't believe I'm lucky I really can't wouldn't give their right arm to do that sort of thing you know people who could do it as well as you even even that's a modest to say tens of thousands and you just happened to be there at the right time you should be grateful certainly so I confident you have a million other things you still want to do what is next for you well I'm off in Africa and a few weeks time Michael Shermer yeah which is a new series and gaining some Natural History Unit is their idea not mine and it's a brilliant idea I don't know what I'm really supposed to talk about I mean we're all professionals in this room and what we're going to do what they have already done is they've gone to a group of animals a little community of animals basically usually even it was a family Cape hunting dogs lions chimpanzees and we say we are going to follow this pack for three years and we don't know what's going to happen whatever does happen we will be there and we will show it you and we will tell you the truth now I won't go into details as to what does happen but I can tell you there's some fairly dark moments in it as you might imagine and we weren't tidy it up we won't conceal Trista's in any way we'll say what actually and that's a new concept and that's credited naturally they're doing that and I'm privileged to be told some of the concrete now you got rid of the kangaroo as the mascot yeah if you had to choose a mascot for yourself is there a creature that you say that's the one that's the one that I like the best very salacious okay I don't know I tend a human beings are very hard thing I don't want to be a fish I don't want to be I don't even want to be a monkey yeah I am fascinated the opportunities are Homo sapiens individual has extraordinary and we are we have that in our hands and I've been allowed to do what I've done it's just the most extraordinary privilege so I don't particularly want to be a hummingbird or a sluice oligomers animals I can think of never mind I think you should just be also I'm afraid that is all that we have got time for on behalf of the audience I have to say David this has been one of the greatest privileges of my life sitting here chatting to you and I thank you on behalf of the audience and for our wider audience you're going to watch it online but most of all I thank you on behalf of all the creatures of this planet who have cared for and focused our attention on on their behalf thank you so much thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: BAFTA Guru

Views: 77,829

Rating: 4.8705635 out of 5

Keywords: BAFTA, BAFTA Guru, British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (Award Presenting Organization), creative, career, film making, TV, gaming, actor, advice, movie, movies, movie making, masterclass, david attenborough, planet earth, planet earth II, blue planet, blue planet II, nature, naturalist, documentary, animals, david attenborough interview, david attenborough birthday, david attenborough age, david attenborough documentary, david attenborough planet earth, david attenborough blue planet

Id: _V65El42riA

Length: 76min 27sec (4587 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018