David Attenborough filmography

This subarticle is kept separate from the main article, David Attenborough, due to size or style considerations.

The following is a chronological list of television series and individual programmes where David Attenborough is credited as writer, presenter, narrator or producer. In a career spanning six decades, Attenborough's name has become synonymous with the natural history programmes produced by the BBC Natural History Unit.

1950s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
1952	Coelacanth	1x10min	This short film, featuring biologist Julian Huxley discussing the rediscovery of the coelacanth, is Attenborough's first television credit	Producer
1952	Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?	Unknown	A quiz show based on the game Twenty Questions, which ran until 1959, in which eminent scientists would try to guess the origin of specimens from museum and university collections	Producer
1953	Song Hunter	6x20min	Series on folk music, featuring performances by Alan Lomax	Producer
1953	The Pattern of Animals	3 episodes	Attenborough's first natural history series, on animal camouflage, warning signals and courtship displays, was studio-based and presented by Julian Huxley	Producer
1954	Zoo Quest	6x30min	An animal-collecting expedition to Sierra Leone with London Zoo curator Jack Lester and cameraman Charles Lagus, in search of the elusive Picathartes gymnocephalus	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1955	Zoo Quest to Guiana	6x30min	For the second Zoo Quest expedition, Attenborough and Lagus introduced British television viewers to the natural history of South America	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1955	The Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-58	6x30min	An occasional series following the progress of Vivian Fuchs and his Commonwealth expedition's successful overland crossing of Antarctica	Presenter and producer
1956	Zoo Quest for a Dragon	6x30min	This Zoo Quest series features the first known footage of the Komodo dragon	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1957	Quest for the Paradise Birds	6x30min	Attenborough's first trip to the island of New Guinea in an attempt to film the courtship displays of the native birds of paradise	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1959	Zoo Quest in Paraguay	6x30min	For the fifth Zoo Quest, Attenborough and Lagus returned to South America and visited the grasslands and wetlands of Paraguay	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer

1960s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
1960	The People of Paradise	6x30min	A series on the anthropology and natural history of the South Pacific	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1960	Travellers' Tales	Unknown	A long-running series made by Attenborough's BBC Travel and Exploration Unit, which also featured Armand and Michaela Denis's On Safari programmes	Narrator and producer
1961	Zoo Quest to Madagascar	6x30min	An expedition to film and collect animals in Madagascar, including lemurs, at the time little-known in Europe	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1961	Adventure	Over 150 episodes	The BBC's flagship travel series from the early 1960s, for which Attenborough is credited as narrator or producer of over 30 programmes	Narrator and producer
1961	Japan	7 episodes	A series presented by Hugh Gibb on the history and culture of the Japanese people	Producer
1962	Destruction of the Indian	3 episodes	This short series looked at how contact with the modern world has affected remote Indian tribes of the South American rainforest	Producer
1963	Attenborough and Animals	10x25min	Attenborough's first series for children, in which different species were compared	Presenter
1963	Quest Under Capricorn	6x30min	The final Zoo Quest series, filmed in the Northern Territory of Australia, was also Attenborough's final natural history series before moving into BBC management	Writer, presenter, sound-recordist and producer
1965	Zambezi	3x50min	During a break from studying for an anthropology degree, Attenborough filmed a journey down the Zambezi	Writer and presenter
1967	Life: East Africa	3 episodes	A series of interviews with African conservationists, filmed during a sabbatical from management duties, for Desmond Morris's Life series on BBC Two	Presenter
1969	The Miracle of Bali	3x50min	Attenborough visited the Indonesian island of Bali to film the traditional music and culture	Narrator and producer
1969	The World About Us	Unknown	Commissioned during his tenure as Controller of BBC Two, Attenborough narrated around 20 episodes of this long-running series between 1969 and 1982	Occasional narrator

1970s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
1971	A Blank on the Map	1x60min	A one-off programme charting an expedition to a remote part of New Guinea	Writer and presenter
1973	Eastwards with Attenborough	6x30min	Attenborough's first natural history series after resigning as BBC Controller took him to South East Asia	Writer and presenter
1973	Natural Break	15x10min	A series of short programmes based on archive footage, produced by John Sparks	Presenter
1973	Royal Institution Christmas Lectures	6x60min	Attenborough joined a list of distinguished names who have presented the annual science lectures aimed at children, on the subject of The Language of Animals	Writer and presenter
1975	The Explorers	10x50min	A series of drama-documentaries recreating the voyages of famous explorers, at the time the most expensive series ever commissioned by the BBC	Introducer and narrator
1975	Fabulous Animals	Unknown	A series for children's television which featured Attenborough reading from books on mythological creatures	Presenter
1975	The Tribal Eye	7x50min	A series on tribal art, of which Attenborough is a keen collector	Writer and presenter
1976	The Discoverers	6x30min	A series on pioneering explorers, discoverers and scientists in the field of natural history	Narrator
1977	Wildlife on One	253x30min	This series of half-hour natural history programmes for BBC One ran annually until 2005	Narrator
1979	Life on Earth	13x55min	Covering the history of life on Earth, this acclaimed series was three years in the making and notable for its groundbreaking footage	Writer and presenter

1980s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
1980	The Spirit of Asia	8x60min	The cultures and religions of the people of Asia	Narrator
1981	The Ark in South Kensington	1 episode	A one-off programme to celebrate the centenary of the Natural History Museum in London	Presenter
1982	Omnibus	1 episode	Series 16, Episode 6. Attenborough interviews Lucie Rie about her studio pottery	Presenter
1983	Natural World	Unknown	BBC Two series still on air, for which Attenborough has narrated or presented over 50 episodes	Occasional narrator, writer or presenter
1984	The Living Planet	12x55min	The follow-up to Life on Earth was another ambitious global series looking at the variety of habitats on the planet	Writer and presenter
1985	The Million Pound Bird Book	1x60min	Attenborough presents a programme on the American naturalist John James Audubon, whose book of life-size bird paintings had recently fetched £1 million at auction	Writer and presenter
1986	The Queen's Christmas Message	6x10min	The Queen's annual Christmas Day address to the nation, televised since 1957, which Attenborough produced between 1986 and 1991	Producer
1986	World Safari	1x90min	A live television event featuring broadcasts from across the world, with contributors including The Duke of Edinburgh and Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi	Co-presenter
1987	The First Eden	4x60min	A series on the Mediterranean, examining the natural history of the region and the impact that successive human civilisations have had on the environment	Writer and presenter
1989	Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives	4x40min	A series on fossils, a passion that Attenborough has had since childhood	Writer and presenter

1990s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
1990	The Trials of Life	12x50min	The final part of the original Trilogy of Life deals with the animal behaviour, with each episode focussing on a particular stage of animals' lives	Writer and presenter
1993	Life in the Freezer	6x30min	A collaboration with Alastair Fothergill, this was the first series devoted to the natural history of Antarctica	Writer and presenter
1993	Wildlife 100	Unknown	To mark the 100th episode of Wildlife on One, Attenborough selected his favourite episodes from past series for this special	Narrator
1994	Heart of a Nomad	1x60min	Attenborough interviews the British explorer and writer Wilfred Thesiger for a Channel 4 documentary	Presenter
1995	The Private Life of Plants	6x50min	In the first of his more specialised Life series, Attenborough brought the world of plants to life using innovations such as timelapse photography	Writer and presenter
1996	Winners and Losers	2x45min	A look at how the subjects of early wildlife filmmaker Eugene Schumacher's 1960s documentary The Rare Ones have fared in the intervening years	Narrator
1996	Q.E.D. "The Secret Life of Seahorses"	1x45min	Attenborough lends his voice to an episode of BBC One's regular half-hour science series, featuring seahorses	Narrator
1996	Attenborough in Paradise	1x50min	Attenborough fulfils a lifelong ambition in New Guinea, where he finally witnesses several birds of paradise species displaying	Writer and presenter
1997	BBC Wildlife Specials	16x50min	After a pilot episode on the great white shark in 1995, the Wildlife Special format was developed into a six-part series to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary in 1997. Further programmes followed on an occasional basis over the following decade	Narrator
1998	The Life of Birds	10x50min	For this series, infrared cameras were employed for the first time to film nocturnal birds such as kiwis and shearwaters	Writer and presenter
1998	The Origin of Species: An Illustrated Guide	1x30min	Broadcast as part of a BBC season on evolution, this programme used library footage to help explain Charles Darwin's theory	Narrator
1999	Sharks - The Truth	1x50min	A programme which seeks to dispel some of the received wisdom surrounding shark behaviour, broadcast as part of BBC One's Shark Summer season	Narrator
1999	They Said It Couldn't Be Done	7x60min	On the eve of the millennium, Attenborough interviews a series of leading wildlife film-makers in front of an audience at the Royal Geographical Society to discover the secrets behind some of their most famous programmes	Presenter

2000s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
2000	State of the Planet	3x50min	Attenborough's first overtly environmental series examines the detrimental impact that modern man is having on the natural world	Writer and presenter
2000	Living with Dinosaurs	1x50min	A profile of crocodiles, turtles and other modern reptiles whose ancestry can be traced back to the dinosaurs	Narrator
2000	The Song of the Earth	1x50min	A scientific look at the musicality of animals, including the songs of birds, whales and gibbons	Writer and presenter
2000	The Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth	1x50min	A Christmas special in which Attenborough travels to some of the world's wildlife hotspots to view spectacular natural events	Presenter
2000	The Lost Gods of Easter Island	1x50min	Attenborough traces the provenance of a small wooden carving in his possession back to Easter Island, and recounts the island's troubled past	Writer and presenter
2000	Bowerbirds: The Art of Seduction	1x50min	A look at how different species of the male Bowerbirds attract a mate	Writer and presenter
2001	The Blue Planet	8x50min	A landmark series on the natural history of the world's oceans, executive-produced by Alastair Fothergill	Narrator
2002	Life on Air	1x60min	Michael Palin interviews Attenborough at his home and looks back at highlights from his 50-year television career	Interviewee
2002	The Life of Mammals	10x50min	To follow up The Life of Birds, Attenborough turned his attention to the mammals, the most successful group of modern animals	Writer and presenter
2002	Great Natural Wonders of the World	1x60min	A sequel to The Greatest Wildlife Show on Earth, this programme featured natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon and was again screened at Christmas time	Presenter
2004	The Amber Time Machine	1x50min	Attenborough investigates the stories behind the insects captured in Amber millions of years ago	Narrator
2004	Satoyama: Japan's Secret Water Garden	2x52min	Documentary about how the local residents of a village in 'Satoyama' live in harmony with nature.	Narrator
2005	Animal Crime Scene	5x60min	A series which combined the traditional wildlife documentary format with that of a crime drama	Narrator
2005	Life in the Undergrowth	5x50min	Developments in macro and close-up film technology enabled the world of invertebrates to be brought to the screen for the first time	Writer and Presenter
2006	Planet Earth	11x50min	Billed as "the ultimate portrait of our planet" by the BBC, this is the most expensive documentary series ever made	Narrator
2006	The Truth about Climate Change	2x60min	Attenborough is convinced by the evidence for man-made global warming, and uses archive footage from his previous series along with contemporary film to show how climate change is affecting the world	Writer and presenter
2006	Gorillas Revisited	1x60min	The story of Rwanda's mountain gorillas reunites Attenborough with the crew who filmed his famous encounter in Life on Earth	Presenter
2007	Climate Change: Britain Under Threat	1x60min	Following his recent documentary on the global issue of climate change, Attenborough fronted this programme on the implications for Britain	Presenter
2007	Trek: Spy in the Wildebeest	2x60min	A BBC One series which used camouflaged mobile cameras to bring new insight to the Serengeti wildebeest migration	Narrator
2007	Tom Harrisson: The Barefoot Anthropologist	1x60min	Part of a season on anthropologists screened on BBC Four, this programme profiled Tom Harrisson, famous for discovering early human remains in Borneo	Presenter
2007	Sharing Planet Earth	1x60min	This programme launched the BBC's Saving Planet Earth season, culminating in a live telethon from Kew Gardens to raise funds for endangered species conservation	Writer and presenter
2007	Attenborough Explores... Our Fragile World	1x60min	Broadcast on digital channel UKTV Documentary, this specially commissioned programme saw Attenborough again tackle the global environmental crisis	Writer and presenter
2008	Life in Cold Blood	5x50min	Attenborough concluded his globetrotting documentaries with the final part of the specialised Life series, featuring reptiles and amphibians	Writer and Presenter
2008	Tiger: Spy in the Jungle	3x60min	Series following a mother tiger and her three cubs in India, filmed using cameras hidden in the jungle and others carried by elephants	Narrator
2008	Humpbacks: From Fire to Ice	1x50min	A documentary made for Australian television on the humpback whale	Narrator
2009	Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life	1x60min	Attenborough presents a personal study of the theory of evolution	Writer and presenter
2009	Nature's Great Events	6x50min	The film techniques of Planet Earth are deployed to dramatise some of the greatest annual wildlife events on the planet	Narrator
2009	Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link	1x60min	A special documentary to coincide with the announcement of a 47 million-year-old primate fossil	Writer and narrator
2009	Life	10x50min	A landmark series documenting some of the more unusual survival strategies that animals and plants around the globe have evolved	Writer and narrator
2009	Horizon Special: "How Many People can Live on Planet Earth?"	1x60min	A special episode of BBC Two's science strand looking at the issue of global population growth	Presenter

2010s

Year	Title	Duration	Subject	Credit(s)
2010	Genius of Britain	5x60min	A Channel 4 series celebrating the achievements of British scientists. Attenborough contributed pieces on Christopher Wren and Joseph Banks	Guest presenter
2010	Horizon: "The Death of the Oceans"	1x60min	An edition of Horizon revealing the first findings of the Census of Marine Life	Presenter
2010	Attenborough's Journey	1x60min	Attenborough tells anecdotes from his broadcasting career as the cameras follow him filming First Life	Presenter
2010	David Attenborough's First Life	2x60min	BBC Two series on the earliest-known complex organisms, referencing the latest fossil evidence	Writer and presenter
2010	Flying Monsters 3D	1x60min	Attenborough's first collaboration with Sky, a 3D film about pterosaurs	Writer and presenter
2011	Madagascar	3x60min	The natural history of Madagascar	Narrator
2011	Attenborough and The Giant Egg	1x60min	The story of aepyornis and its implications for the modern-day conservation efforts	Presenter
2011	Desert Seas	1x60min	Wildlife filmmakers are given unprecedented access to the coastal seas off Saudi Arabia	Narrator

Other programmes

In addition to writing, presenting, narrating and producing his own and other film-makers' documentaries, David Attenborough has made regular appearances as an on-screen participant on numerous television programmes. The following list includes some of his more notable appearances:

• A Zed & Two Noughts, narrator in film drama (1985)
• State of the Ark, participant in on-screen debate about zoos (1994)
• 2000 Today, guest, interviewed about the environmental state of the planet (2000)
• Robbie the Reindeer, voice of the museum commentary in episode "Legend of the Lost Tribe" (2002)
• Attenborough the Controller, archive footage and interviewee (2002)
• Attenborough in Conversation with Mark Lawson, interviewee (2002)
• Great Wildlife Moments, introduces library footage on a DVD compilation (2003)
• The Way We Went Wild, archive footage and interviewee (2004)
• Selfish Green, participant in on-screen debate on the environment (2004)
• How Art Made The World, interviewee (2005)
• Time Shift, episode "The Lost Road: Overland to Singapore", on-screen participant (2005)
• Favourite Attenborough Moments, archive footage (2006)
• Suez: A Very British Crisis, interviewee (2006)
• Planet Earth: The Future, interviewee (2006)
• Watching Desmond Morris (2007), on-screen participant
• 100 Years of Wildlife Films, archive footage (2007)
• Fossil Detectives, interviewee (2008)
• Happy Birthday OU: 40 Years of the Open University, interviewee (2009)
• The Big Fat Quiz Of The Year 2009, guest question master (2009)
• The Born Free Legacy, interviewee (2010)
• Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts, interviewee (2010)
• Birds Britannia, interviewee (2010)

Sources

• David Attenborough, Life on Air, BBC Books, 2002
• David Attenborough filmography at the BFI Film and TV Database
• David Attenborough filmography at IMDb.com