David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth – live
While we wait for the show to begin, allow me to offer you some links to some of our recent David Attenborough coverage.
Here’s our tribute to the man’s birthday, hilariously including the insinuation that he probably would have just preferred to stay at home today
A very lovely series of recollections about Attenborough
Here’s Jack Seale’s review of Making Life on Earth, the documentary on Attenborough’s groundbreaking 1979 natural history series
And finally, the article that has permanently altered my iPlayer algorithm: David Attenborough’s 100 greatest moments
I’m sure the point will be made during the course of the next couple of hours, but it’s important to remember that David Attenborough is more than just a television presenter. He is television. His first screen credit came in the mid-1950s, when the rules of the medium had yet to solidify, and is therefore responsible for a lot of the grammar the form still uses to this day.
As controller of BBC Two he was responsible for commissioning Monty Python, The Ascent of Man and The Old Grey Whistle Test. He spearheaded the introduction of colour television in the UK. He grew as television grew and, as it began to contract, he moved elsewhere; to satellite, to streaming, to cinema. As much as tonight is a celebration of a genuinely remarkable man, it should therefore also be a celebration of the medium he forged in his own image.
Welcome one and all to The Guardian’s liveblog of David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth. You will be pleased to know, as I certainly am, that this is not a century-long liveblog. Instead it exists to cover the 90-minute Albert Hall spectacular that BBC One is airing tonight.
You may already be aware that today is Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, and so this is an extremely fitting tribute. Our greatest living national treasure is the subject of what’s being billed as “a journey of exploration and discovery through the prism of Sir David’s extraordinary life and career.” In short, there will be music, there will be film, there will be recollections and, if we’re lucky, there will be cake.
The programme starts on BBC One at 8:30pm. Join me back here for the start or, if you happen to be unusually fond of preambles, stick around here. It should be a fitting celebration for such a universally beloved figure.
