National treasure Sir David Attenborough is 99 years young, and still remarkably productive for his age.
Just months after his latest documentary Ocean hit big screens up and down the country, he has returned to narrate Parenthood.
Filmed over three years across six continents and 23 countries, it is one of the most ambitious nature documentary series ever produced, and “showcases astonishing, never-before-seen animal behaviours in stunning 6K ultra high definition”, per the BBC.
But that doesn’t mean he is immune to bouts of realism as he approaches the end of his life.
Sir David Attenborough’s friends say he will ‘never retire’ but he is realistic
Nature expert and much beloved documentary presenter David Attenborough was born on May 8, 1926.
He turned 99 this year, which means he will join the exclusive ranks of centenarians actively working in broadcasting next spring.
Mike Gunton, with whom David has worked several times over the years, is adamant that he will never see his old friend retire.
“It’s never going to happen,” he insisted last year. Mike first worked with David in 1990, on The Trials of Life. He is a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit.
But David Attenborough is not naive to the fact that older people tend to experience certain forms of mental and physical slowing, such as Alzheimer’s disease or another neurodegenerative condition.
In 2021, American TV host Anderson Cooper asked him what he was most fearful of at the moment. Sir David replied: “Becoming helpless and gaga.”
He doesn’t want to return ‘substandard’ work
David Attenborough has previously admitted to experiencing a certain amount of “dread” when considering retirement. Over the past few years, he has been “coming to terms” with its inevitability, and the natural process of aging.
But turning in substandard work would be worse, he said.
“If I think I’m not producing commentary with any freshness, I hope I would be able to recognise it before someone else told me. If I thought I was turning in substandard work, that would stop me.”
As such, he spends a lot of time crafting his scripts. He has also changed his diet.
“Not in a great sort of dramatic way,” the Mirror quotes him as saying. “But I don’t think I’ve eaten red meat for months. I do eat cheese, I have to say, and I eat fish. But by and large, I’ve become much more vegetarian over the past few years than I thought I would ever be.”
He has had a pacemaker since 2013, and underwent knee replacement surgery on both knees in 2015.
“After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea,” he says in his 2025 documentary Ocean.
“If we save the sea, we save our world. After a lifetime of filming our planet, I’m sure nothing is more important.”
David’s wife Jane died in 1997. Their two children, Robert and Susan, have in various ways chosen to work on projects that align with their father’s ethos.
Parenthood airs on Sunday at 7:10pm on BBC One.
Read more: BBC steps in to clear up concerns over Sir David Attenborough’s new series Asia
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