Attenborough: ‘We must protect BBC’s crown jewels in Bristol’

Sir David Attenborough has warned that the BBC’s world-famous Natural History Unit in Bristol must not “drop its guard” as the broadcaster continues to make cuts across all platforms.

He told Bristol24/7 in an interview before the premiere of Planet Earth II at Cinema de Lux in Cabot Circus on Wednesday that he worries cutbacks would erode the quality of one of the finest documentary-making units in the world.

“Of course, of course I worry,” he said. “Anybody who doesn’t worry about it deserves to lose it. Of course you worry about it and of course we need to argue for it all the time and we don’t drop our guard.”

The Natural History Unit, formed in 1957, faced cuts to its £37 million annual budget in 2007, which were widely condemned at the time by programme-makers including Attenborough.

Attenborough, who turned 90 this year, revealed that the Natural History Unit has since received reassurances from Tony Hall, the BBC director general. “It’s one of the great jewels in the crown. I’ve heard the director general say ‘let’s get this absolutely clear: the Natural History Unit is a very, very important part of the BBC and as long as I’m in post it’s going to be here’.”

He added: “We know we are very lucky and we know programmes like this are holding their own because they sell worldwide and they take the BBC name around the world – but they also bring back proper income which makes it conceivably possible and the viewer gets a very good bargain, he really does.”

Attenborough went on to praise the work of the unit in Bristol which at 60 years old is the longest running natural history department in the world.

He said at the heart of its success was its public ownership. “The BBC has standards,” he said. “The great thing about the BBC is they say ‘we think this is an important subject and we will treat it as an important subject and give it a real chance to be successful’. No broadcaster except state broadcasters conceivably would do that.

“The BBC’s was the first Natural History Unit in the world and the BBC treated it seriously and realised it’s a branch of expertise and skill which was necessary to produce the right results – it has led the world.

Attenborough also appeared to back new rules forcing the BBC top publish its top earners’ wages, although he stopped short of commenting directly on his own salary.

“We will always be under pressure,” he said. “The BBC spends a lot of money and it comes from all our pockets so it’s right and proper that it should be under pressure, it’s right and proper the BBC should be held to account.”

Looking back at his career, he said he had achieved almost everything he set out to, partly thanks to the technological advances like unmanned camera drones and camera traps which make much of Planet Earth II possible – including rare footage of a snow leopard.

“I remember I wrote a series called Life on Earth about 30 years ago. At that time I sat down and I just wrote all the things I wished to see.

“I didn’t say how I’d do it. I wrote a sequence with a snow leopard and people said to me ‘what you are talking about? Nobody’s ever even photographed a snow leopard’.”

Asked what he would put on his wishlist for a future series, he replied: “You would work hard to think of something that hasn’t been done. We’re now saying, ‘well we’ll do it better!’ But I can’t think of anything major that the producer would say ‘why the hell is he writing this in here for?’

He added: “The great thing I’ve wanted to do in the deep ocean is the giant squid – fantastic animal, 100ft long, just little bits of it have washed up every now and again. We actually tried, oh we tried like hell, we tried.”

Asked if he had thought about slowing down in his old age, he said: “All I could say is I’m extremely lucky. Okay, it’s not a secret: I am 90. And I know an awful lot of dear friends and relatives that are my age that can’t remember anything – I can’t remember much actually.

“But they can’t get about, you know, and it’s not their fault and it’s not a virtue of mine – I haven’t done anything good for the fact that I can walk about. But as long as I can walk about it would seem grossly wasteful and ungrateful not to take advantage of it.”

The first episode of Planet Earth II is on BBC1 at 8pm on November 6.

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