SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S WONDERFUL LIFE

Sir David Attenborough had an incredible career of 60 years ground breaking Television. David Attenborough started his career when he joined BBC in 1952. In 1954 a new series began with Zoo Quest.

His phenomenal and ground breaking series Life on Earth was watched in 1979 by 500 million people world wide. This series made Sir David Attenborough an iconic figure of wildlife documentary filming.

Ben Fogle who is himself an explorer and presenter interviewed Sir David for a TV documentary. Ben stated that he was daunted to interview such a great man but afterwards he said: "He makes you feel very relaxed. He's as you see him on TV - so warm and enthusiastic and has such a powerful way with words. You're in awe of how much he knows about our world."

In 1961 Sir David Attenborough travelled to Madagascar for his fifth Zoo Quest in the series. When he was there he found a giant egg which is almost a foot-long. It is an egg of the now extinct elephant bird. The largest bird that had ever lived. He regards it as his most treasured possession. He returned to the Island Madagascar last year. 50 years after he made the documentary "Attenborough And The Giant Egg". This time he tried to find out more about the egg and to film the series Madagascar.

In 1979 Sir David Attenborough started a series called "Life On Earth" and he calls it his greatest achievement. It was estimated that the series was watched by 500 million people worldwide. David recalls the most memorable moment when he found a group of mountain gorillas in Dian Fossey's sanctuary in Rwanda. Later on when David wrote his memoirs, he mentions the event as "one of the most exciting encounters of my life."

In 1984 a new series began called "The Living Planet". This series was filmed in the most inhospitable and difficult to reach locations in the world. One was to show the eruption of volcanoes or the other in the world’s deepest valley. Sir David Attenborough acknowledged the hardship his film crew endured. He said: "The difficulties are not actually experienced by me. The difficulties are those that are encountered by the cameramen, directors and recordists, who actually have to get an animal doing something which perhaps nobody's ever even seen before." This statement also shows the kind of gentleman he is.

In 1990 a new series "The Trials Of Life" is a study in animal behaviour. Sir David Attenborough travelled almost a quarter of a million miles to film. It was a lengthy documentary and took altogether three and a half years. One of the most dramatic scenes was filming killer whales stalking seals on the beach. It was so real and closed up because the cameramen were only meters away from the attacking whales. David stated afterwards that it was lunacy to go into the water and more lunacy to lay on the beach to the get the best shots.

In 1993 Sir David Attenborough created a series "Life In The Freezer". David and the film crews of 20 went to the Antarctica to film. This series took them three years. The danger here was monolithic glaciers and blizzards with 160kph. They went into territories which were previously labelled as inaccessible. After 17 years, David went back to the South Pole to film "Frozen Planet". It will be shown on BBC this autumn.

In 2001 they filmed "The Blue Planet". This series brought amazing photographs which were never seen before. It unravelled some of he biggest mysteries of the ocean. They discovered the migration routes of the world's largest animal, the blue whale. They were successful in filming deep-sea creatures. Unusual squids and jellies were never filmed before. In the UK alone 12 million people were watching the series.

In 2002 they decided to film "The Life Of Mammals". Sir David Attenborough decided to join the film crew since the Series "The Life Of Birds" in 1998 was also a great success.

Sadly his wife Jane died in 1997. They married in the 1950s and had a son and a daughter.

David reminiscent: "The Life Of Birds was sufficiently well received for the BBC to ask me if I would like to tackle another similar series about another group of animals. How about mammals? I was in my mid-seventies but I decided I would rather do that than sit at home by myself".

Sir David Attenborough can look back on a wonderful life. He gave a complete new understanding about the world we live in. These pioneering nature series which were made under great stress and endurance gave us, no doubt, an inside of nature, animals and the ocean which would have never been known.

Sir David Attenborough celebrated his 85th birthday last month.