Perth, April 30: Sir David Attenborough turns 100 on 8 May 2026, marking a century of life for the world’s most beloved naturalist and the longest-serving TV presenter in broadcasting history.
His presenting career began 72 years ago in 1954 with the series Zoo Quest, and across the decades that followed, he has narrated, written and presented more than 100 films and series, visited over 80 countries, and won more than 30 major broadcasting and environmental awards.
He is the only person to have won BAFTAs across four television eras: black and white, colour, HD, and 3D.
His landmark series Life on Earth (1979) was watched by an estimated 500 million people worldwide, while later works including The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet continued to shape how generations connect with the natural world.
As Controller of BBC Two, he also played a pivotal role in changing the colour of tennis balls from white to yellow during the BBC’s transition from black and white to colour broadcasting.
Notably, Attenborough has never held a driving licence, and more than a dozen species of flora and fauna have been named in his honour, including a goblin spider and a flightless weevil.
His remarkable career, however, began with an unlikely start. After completing his National Service in the Royal Navy in 1949, a young Attenborough briefly worked editing children’s science textbooks before applying for a radio producer role at the BBC in 1950.
That application was rejected, but his CV caught the attention of Mary Adams, head of the BBC’s fledgling television Talks department, who offered him a three-month training course in 1952.
At the time, Attenborough did not own a television and had only ever watched one programme in his life. The rest is history.
To mark his centenary, BritBox is making more than 10 of his greatest series available to stream, including The Blue Planet, Blue Planet II, Life, Dinosaur Apocalypse, The Hunt: Nothing is Certain, Frozen Planet, Natural World (Galápagos), Planet Earth, Africa and Madagascar.
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