Sir David Attenborough has been refreshingly humble about his contribution to the impending Planet Earth III – and we couldn’t agree more.
The 97-year-old broadcaster and national treasure returns as the voice of the BBC’s flagship wildlife documentary’s third series.
The naturalist was interviewed with other important members of the Bafta and Emmy Award-winning show’s creative team ahead of the show’s return on Sunday.
However, he stated that his dulcet tones may not be ‘essential’ for the programme, and we’ll have to disagree on that one, Sir David.
In a clip of the chat aired during Tuesday’s edition of The One Show, Sir David revealed that he ‘held his breath’ over the ‘most extraordinary shot’ from this series, which involved a leopard leaping down over 50 feet in the air from a tree to grab an antelope.
The iconic TV performer creates and provides the narration for Planet Earth, using footage given to him from the production’s worldwide excursions.
‘I don’t go out there anymore, I’m sitting writing the commentary, so I see the action before I know it’s going to happen,’ he explained.
Sir David said that it meant the programme frequently’surprised’ him since he didn’t know what was going to happen.
‘I sit in front of the television set with my pen, writing the words – and then suddenly you see this, and you realise you haven’t written anything because you’re just completely held.’
‘And that may tell you that perhaps your words aren’t all that necessary,’ he added, in supremely self-deprecating fashion.
While it is the crew, videographers, and specialists that travel the world to record the famous programme’s magnificent imagery that makes it so spectacular, Sir David’s personal efforts undoubtedly help maintain Planet Earth popular as well.
The well-known wildlife specialist has been giving presentations for more than eight decades, so it’s no surprise that he was chosen earlier this year as the best candidate to represent Earth if we ever make contact with aliens.
As one viewer who was watching the interview put it: ‘He’s so interesting to listen to, and very humble.’
We couldn’t agree more.
Elsewhere, Sir David shared some insight into how he scripts the episodes, explaining: ‘You mustn’t be too wordy. The one key, I think, is that a picture is more powerful than a spoken word and if you give people the two things, the thing that they remember is the picture. You can’t ignore pictures.
‘Having written a commentary the first thing to do is to carefully see what you can get rid of.’
Planet Earth III begins on Sunday, October 22 at 6:15pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
