Due to worries over the possible threat that avian flu may have posed to the broadcaster, a critical scene in Sir David Attenborough’s new BBC series was at risk of not being recorded.
Sir David has been a nationally and globally beloved role model on our television screens for decades, carrying viewers around the world to teach about a wide assortment of environments and creatures.
The 97-year-old has travelled much closer to home in his latest documentary series, Wild Islands, addressing difficulties inside the British Isles for the first time.
Metro.co.uk recently talked with the show’s creators, including executive producer Alastair Fothergill, about what it was like working behind the scenes with Sir David.
Alastair remembered a scene in Wild Isles where Sir David saw Manx shearwater chicks on Skomer Island off the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, where he initially worked with the broadcaster in the late 1990s, teaming with him on series such as The Blue Planet and Planet Earth.
Sir David was about to speak about the long voyage ahead of the chicks, leaving their subterranean burrows for the first time to fly 6,000 miles distant… Yet, there were fears about the spread of avian flu.
‘To be honest, we didn’t know whether we were going to catch it,’ Alastair stated, emphasising how ‘nervous’ they were about the possibility of bird flu.
The producer described how avian flu was’really nasty’ last year while they were filming, and how it had spread close to where they were stationed two weeks before production began.
‘I thought I’d have to cancel it all,’ he added, adding that the gulls in the affected region would flock to Skomer.
Fortunately, Alastair had a “very old buddy” who works as a government expert on infectious illnesses, so he sought advice from him.
‘I said to him, “What should we do?” And he said, “If David gets it, he will die. But it’s actually very, very hard to get bird flu,”’ he recalled.
The decision was made to continue filming, with Sir David keeping a safe distance from the bird perched on the rock in front of him.
‘Everybody was happy. His daughter was happy, he was happy and there wasn’t any risk, but it was a bit unnerving at the time,’ Alastair said.
The scene they ended up recording was incredibly emotional, having began at 11 p.m. and staying until approximately 2 a.m. to capture the video.
Alastair stated that while Sir David seldom travels nowadays, he was’really up for it’ when the opportunity to film Wild Islands in the UK was presented to him, despite the fact that he was 96 years old at the time.
‘David just hasn’t changed. He has a boyish enthusiasm for nature, which all of us who make these films, who are privileged enough to do it, have as well. It was an amazing night actually,’ he stated.
Wild Isles begins on Sunday March 12 at 7pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.