David Attenborough turns 100: 10 things you didn’t know about the king of nature documentaries
A life on screen, a world explored, an audience captivated. Happy birthday, David Attenborough!
Sir David Frederick Attenborough – a true national treasure if ever there was one – celebrates his 100th birthday on May 8th, 2026.
The great English broadcaster, natural historian, and writer has had a long and distinguished career. So long and distinguished, in fact, that there’s a lot of fascinating stuff out there you probably didn’t know about the man.
We all know about his possibly-even-more-famous older brother, of course (acting and directing heavyweight Richard). We also know about his priceless work in the field of nature documentaries, typified by Planet Earth and Blue Planet.
But we suspect that’s plenty about the life and career of this distinguished gent that would surprise you. You don’t roll through an eight-decade career in television making without throwing up some interesting tidbits.
Here, then, are ten things you probably didn’t know about David Attenborough.
1. He has over 40 species named after him
When you’re a bona fide national treasure who has been working at the leading edge of public nature education since the early 1950s, you’d better believe you’re going to attract a lot of love from zoologists and ecologists. And boy, has Mr Attenborough received the love over the years. Indeed, he’s had more than 40 species named after him, from the Oedura attenboroughi (an Australian gecko) in 1985 to the Gibellula attenboroughii (a parasitic fungus) in 2025.
2. He can’t drive
For a perennial globe trotter and a practical man who isn’t afraid to muck in when the going gets wild, it might surprise you to learn that David Attenborough can’t drive. He never learned to drive, doesn’t have a driving license, doesn’t own a car. You might well presume that this is down to the great man’s principled predilection for green initiatives, but that’s not the case. Attenborough has admitted that he quite simply hates driving, and having been chauffeured around for much of his career, never felt the need to learn.
3. He helped push colour TV – and snooker
We all think of Attenborough as a presenter and narrator of stunning wildlife documentaries, but the truth is that he’s had an impressively rich and varied career. Back in the late 1960s, for example, he was the controller of BBC Two here in the UK. Under his watch, he was a champion for then-nascent colour TV technology, and chose the sport of snooker to help showcase its appeal. It’s arguable that his representation helped make what was a rather niche pub sport into a national obsession.
4. He also commissioned Monty Python
Attenborough also commissioned another British institution during his time as Controller of BBC Two. As part of his brief to bring experimental television programmes to the screen back in 1969, he authorised the go ahead of a show from a certain group of comedians with a surrealistic bent. We’re talking, of course, about Monty Python's Flying Circus. It’s arguable that British comedy wouldn’t be the force that it is without the input of David Attenborough.
5. He’s a man who crosses TV generations
David Attenborough can be defined by a number of things, from his inimitable voice to his ceaseless championing of ecological causes. Another key attribute is the sheer amount of time that he’s spent at the top of his particular game. Nothing represents that point quite like this fact: he’s the only person to win BAFTA awards for television programming in black-and-white, colour, HD, 3D, and 4K formats. You have to suspect that he will also be the last, given that some of those formats are all but extinct.
6. He once had a brush with cannibals
Back in 1967, fairly relatively in his career, Attenborough was exploring Papua New Guinea on the trail of Birds of Paradise when he encountered the Biami tribe. This secluded group was perhaps most notable for having a reputation for practicing cannibalism. Thankfully, Attenborough’s calm and kind demeanour ensured that the meeting went peacefully. Indeed, he even attempted to engage in a little light trading with the secluded tribe.
7. His teeth nearly cost him his career
A televisual world without David Attenborough is more or less unthinkable to us here in 2026, but the presenter very nearly missed out on his big break due to a deeply strange piece of personal criticism. At the very onset of his career, a producer told him that he shouldn’t appear in front of the camera because his teeth were too big. He only got his chance when the first choice presenter of Zoo Quest fell ill, prompting him to step in.
8. He has 32 honorary university degrees
Sir David Attenborough has received countless awards over his distinguished career – including the knighthood that placed the ’Sir’ at the beginning of his name. Perhaps the most telling tribute to the high regard in which he is held is the sheer number of academic institutions that have handed him an honorary degree. It’s thought that he holds more than 32 of the things, including from such distinguished schools as Trinity College of Dublin and the University of Cambridge.
9. He’s scared of rats
You might assume that such a well travelled appreciator of animals would have none of the usual hang ups about small furry creatures, but Attenborough is as averse to rats as the rest of us. In fact, he has admitted to being irrationally “petrified” of the ubiquitous rodents, and has stated that they are the only animal in the world that he dislikes to this degree. Apparently, it all dates back to an incident on the Solomon Islands when a rat ran across him while he was lying in bed.
10. He’s pro-cloning
The esteemed naturalist has gone to bat for any number of ecological causes, and has often criticised human tampering with nature. It might surprise you, then, to learn that he’s all for cloning. “I actually agree with cloning a species if you’re down to the very last one,” he once said, though he added the caveat that it would be preferable to clone a male and female of the endangered species and then allow things to develop more naturally from there.
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