The BBC is hosting a party for David Attenborough at the Royal Albert Hall. Cinemas are playing his nature films. Friends have spent weeks lavishing praise on the man and his work. But the world's most famous wildlife presenter is likely to be uncomfortable with all the attention as he celebrates his 100th birthday on Friday, said Alastair Fothergill, producer of some of Attenborough's most well-known documentaries. "He's always been very clear to all of us that work with him: 'Remember, the animals are the stars, I'm not,'" Fothergill told the AP. "So, yes, surprisingly for one of the most famous men on the planet, he doesn't like being famous at all." But Attenborough has had to accept the accolades this week as scientists, politicians, and conservationists celebrated the man who has brought frolicking gorillas, breaching whales, and tiny poisonous frogs into living rooms around the world for more than 70 years.
Through BBC programs such as Life on Earth, The Private Life of Plants, and The Blue Planet, Attenborough has illuminated the beauty, ferocity, and sometimes downright weirdness of nature in a hushed melodic voice that conveys his own awe at what he is witnessing. Viewers who might never leave their hometowns were transported to the Himalayas, the Amazon, and the unexplored forests of Papua New Guinea. But behind the stunning images was an attention to scientific accuracy that helped teach people about complex subjects like evolution, animal behavior, and biodiversity. And as the evidence mounted, he began to sound the alarm about climate change, ocean plastic, and other human-caused threats to the planet.
That helped people understand not only how life evolved but, more importantly, why we have to protect it, said Professor Ben Garrod, an evolutionary biologist at the University of East Anglia and himself a broadcaster who has worked alongside Attenborough. Attenborough, Garrod believes, initially saw himself as a neutral observer but was compelled to speak out when he saw that politicians, business leaders, and the public weren't taking the emergency seriously. "He is showing you the majesty, the ferocity, the fragility of the natural world. He shouldn't have ever had to have turned to policymaking and advocacy," Garrod said.
On this, Attenborough's centenary, his fans made a point of finding him. In a recorded audio message, he said he thought he would mark the day quietly. As if. "I've been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages,'' he said. "I simply can't reply to each of you all separately, but I would like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages." And he isn't planning to stop now, Fothergill said. "He said to me recently he feels unbelievably privileged that a man in his late 90s is still being asked to work. And, you know, he will go on forever. He will die in his safari shorts."
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