“If you appear on the box, people think you know what you are talking about, and it’s patently not so,” says David Attenborough, in an interview published in this week’s New Statesman. He is being typically modest – as Richard Dawkins puts it, Attenborough is probably the most respected person in Britain. His body of work has shaped the way we see the natural world, and contributed significantly to scientific research.
But while underplaying his achievements (he describes himself as a “chap from the television”) Attenborough is also tough-minded, taking on the critics who say he fails to credit a divine creator in his films.
“You’re never going to silence them because the fundamental problem is accepting what evidence exists. They say, ‘It’s written down on this page and what is there is beyond argument and it was put there by God.’ If you believe that, well, I’m awfully sorry, but there’s no point in us discussing it.”
On the BBC too, he is frank: “I think the BBC has strayed from the straight and narrow on a number of courses at the moment,” he says. “The sails need to be trimmed and [it] needs to be refocused . . . but it is crucially important in our society and [represents] the highest aspirations of our society. I’m appalled anybody thinks otherwise.” His warning to the government is clear. “If you remove the licence fee, it would be gone in a decade, finished.”
His passion is infectious, just as it is when he talks about wildlife. And this, of course, is all that matters to him. “That’s what being alive is about,” he says. “I mean, it’s the fun of it all, making sense of it, understanding it. There’s a great pleasure in knowing why trees shed their leaves in winter. Everybody knows they do, but why? If you lose that, then you’ve lost pleasure.”
To read the full article buy a copy of this week’s New Statesman, out Thursday.
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