Plans for David Attenborough's Royal Albert Hall 100th birthday event revealed

A photo of David Attenborough — (Image credit: BBC)

London's Royal Albert Hall is hosting a concert and all-round celebrity-packed event to celebrate the 100th birthday of David Attenborough. Full details on what will happen during the evening have now been revealed.

It’s called David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Plant Earth and at least two big musicals names are taking part. Bastille singer Dan Smith will join the BBC Concert Orchestra for a rendition of the band’s massive hit Pompeii, while soundscape-smiths Sigur Ros will also feature.

There’s good reasoning for their inclusion too. Their tracks have variously been used in David Attenborough’s Planet Earth I, II and III documentaries.

It’s expected to be a full-on audio-visual extravaganza, which the Royal Albert Hall is already well equipped for, including classic filmed moment from the BBC’s archives.

The event will run for around 90 minutes, and will feature contributions from Chris Packham, Michael Palin and naturalist Steve Backshall too, while it’s hosted by Kirsty Young.

“Sir David’s gift to the world has been a life spent exquisitely revealing Earth’s wonders to us all,” said Young. “The very least he deserves is a big 100th birthday bash at the Royal Albert Hall.”

The BBC Concert Orchestra will also play other tracks from the Planet Earth shows and Frozen Planet.

This event takes place on May 8th but it’s already far too late to get tickets from the usual places as they went on sale back in February. A quick search did not reveal any resale tickets at the more ethical resale sites, while the small handful of tickets available at Viagogo are eye-wateringly expensive.

If you’re going to try to pick up a last-minute ticket: good luck. There is another option, though.

The David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth event is being filmed, and will air from 8:30pm on May 8th, just an hour after it starts in person.

You’ll be able to check it out after the fact on BBC iPlayer.

Despite his age, Attenborough has had a particularly fertile period of late. His BBC series Secret Garden was released to great acclaim on April 5th, while Netflix’s A Gorilla Story: Told by David Attenborough came out just days later on April 17th. Both are well worth a watch.

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Andrew Williams has written about all sorts of stuff for more than a decade — from tech and fitness to entertainment and fashion. He has written for a stack of magazines and websites including Wired, TrustedReviews, TechRadar and Stuff, enjoys going to gigs and painting in his spare time. He's also suspiciously good at poker.