The wonderful David Attenborough is 80. When most octogenarians are lucky if they aren’t in a grim care home, Attenborough is still actively promoting his concerns for the environment. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4976552.stm) He must be the best-ever presenter/creator of science and nature programmes. Every year, he brings amazing new content to remind us of the fragile diversity of life on Earth.

Attenborough has had a wonderful life, having seen so many of the fragile marvels of the world. He personifies all the positive qualities of an ideal of aristocratic Englishness – adventurousness, intelligence, wit,  moral worth, charm, willingness to endure hardships and joys with equal stoicism – that were rarely found in reality rather than ideology. 

Digital channels have been showing his programmes from throughout the past decades.  These are almost always brilliant. In his BBC radio interview, he is careful to credit the cameramen as the real creators of the stunning footage that we associate with Attenborough.  However, it is his majestic and much parodied  delivery that makes so many of these programmes unforgettable.

The BBC site says that he got his first presentation job by chance, despite the misgivings of an administrator over the size of his teeth. This suggests that a modern Attenborough would be unlikely to get near the screen. Present day tv presenters tend to be either comedy “mad scientist” stereotypes or perfectly groomed forgettable clones. Attenborough is certainly distinctive without ever being a hysterical mad scientist. His delivery is  perfectly judged. His voice is unmistakable, with its odd tendency to whisper for greater effect.  He approaches the viewer as someone like himself, with all the aristocratic virtues.

If ever there was a 50s “Boys Own” hero in the real world, David Attenborough comes close.