David Attenborough praises Bristol as BBC celebrates 90 years in the city

Sir David Attenborough has said Bristol “led the world to be truthful” as the BBC celebrates 90 years of broadcasting in the city where BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit is based.

The 98-year-old broadcaster said the city had pioneered natural history television when it began producing The Naturalist in the 1940s, presented by Desmond Hawkins.

Speaking to BBC Points West he said: “Desmond was the king of natural history broadcasting and an accomplished naturalist.

“Bristol led the world to be truthful. It started this with radio, and when television came along, Peter Scott and Desmond Hawkins continued that tradition.”

In 1979, Sir David presented Life On Earth, made in Bristol, which attracted around 15 million viewers.

Sir David said: “The other big mega power in broadcasting was the United States, and in the 1970s, viewers there just thought natural history was just lions attacking antelopes.

“Bristol’s programmes taught them that termites could be just as interesting.”

The Blue Planet narrator spoke about the programmes he made in Bristol, which awarded him the freedom of the city in 2013, and said people in London were “derisory” of the way he worked when he was starting out.

He said: “When we started the film people in London were very derisory about 16mm (film), they called it bootlace. We couldn’t film on 35mm because we couldn’t drag around those enormous great big cameras.

“Almost every year, we had better facilities. The film became smaller, the recording apparatus became more sensitive.

“I’ve tried to film orangutan, and they do absolutely nothing – they just sit in the trees, and they’re very difficult to see. Now along comes a drone, and you can film things that you couldn’t possibly ever see from the ground.”

He said he almost ended up living in Bristol but family and work life prevented him from making the move from the capital.

Sir David added: “In 1955, I was told I was to be made head of the Natural History Unit in Bristol, and I said I would prefer not to do so because I had just bought a house in London, my son and daughter were fixed in schools.

“I also had responsibility for prime ministerial broadcasts with Anthony Eden, which I wasn’t all that interested in, but nonetheless I had the responsibilities. Had it happened three years earlier I probably would have been there.

“It is always a joy to visit Bristol, the city has a regional personality. If you’re a broadcaster, particularly a natural history broadcaster, there is nowhere else like Bristol in the world.”

Sir David said the world would be in a “far, far worse situation” without the programming the Natural History Unit helped to pioneer.

He said: “People have found it a source of fascination and beauty and interest, and this has become key to looking after the world.

“People are aware of the problems of conservation in a way that could not exist without broadcasting, and the BBC can claim that we’re leading that.”

The full interview with Sir David will be shown on BBC Points West at 6.30pm on Tuesday on BBC One and iPlayer.