Ten of Attenborough's best documentaries

ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GooglePaul Glynn,BBC NewsandIan Youngs,BBC NewsSir David Attenborough's landmark natural history programmes have educated and inspired us for more than seven decades. From hanging out with primates to early climate warnings, here's a selection of his trailblazing programmes and where to watch them in the UK. Life on Earth was Attenborough's ambitious, globe-spanning attempt to tell the story of life in a way that had never been attempted before, "from the first primitive cells to the plants and animals that now live around us". It established Attenborough as the foremost TV naturalist, as well as an iconic British cultural figure. It was "absolutely groundbreaking for the time", according to Dr Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, author of BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough. "It was the first time that they sent cameramen all over the world to capture images of animal behaviour in the field," he explains. "It's the first series which has Attenborough talking to camera [on location], instead of being in the studio and commenting on footage. "Life on Earth is the first on-screen appearance of David Attenborough as a character, rather than just as a presenter. It's the first for everything, basically." Memorably, the penultimate episode found Attenborough playing with and being groomed by a group of mountain gorillas, which he later described as "one of the most exciting encounters of my life". The Bafta-nominated series was watched by up to 500 million people worldwide and set the template for what would follow with what became known as his Life Collection, including The Living Planet, The Private Life of Plants and The Life of Birds. And to mark his 100th birthday, the BBC also revisited it in a new documentary called Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure. This series set out to capture animal behaviour from birth to death, as producers worked closely with scientists to uncover fascinating and surprising stories and insights. "For example, they got on film for the first time evidence of chimpanzees using tools," Dr Gouyon says. It also captured shocking but significant footage of chimps working together to brutally catch, kill and eat colobus monkeys. "That was a first for wildlife television and something which had been debated in science circles. "They really worked with field researchers and filmed behaviour which had never been seen before on television." The Blue Planet found Sir David exploring the world's oceans and many of their mysterious inhabitants - from monsters of the deep to pack-hunting killer whales attacking a grey whale calf. It has been described as the first comprehensive series on the natural history of the world's oceans, revealing the spectacular variety of life under the sea. "For the first time we were able to share the life experience of marine animals, which is something we could previously only imagine, and we're really deep in the middle of it," Dr Gouyon says. "That's what made such an effect." Blue Planet II followed in 2017, and helped alert the world to "the crime of chucking plastic into the ocean that can throttle and poison creatures, including ourselves", Sir David told BBC News in 2019. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Google YouTube content may contain adverts.This was filmed across 64 different countries over five years, celebrating the amazing variety of the natural world. It became the most expensive nature documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC and allowed viewers to watch wildlife drama - like an epic battle between a hungry polar bear and a walrus - in high definition for the first time. Blue Planet and Planet Earth rekindled the public's love of nature documentaries, and had a more cinematic sweep than their predecessors, according to Dr Gouyon. "It's the quality and the scale of what was shown which was really groundbreaking with Blue Planet and Planet Earth," he says. That was taken to another level for the sequels. In 2016, Planet Earth II included gripping moments of tension and drama like snakes chasing newly-hatched iguanas, and attracted more young viewers than ITV hit The X Factor. Frozen Planet focused on life in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and underlined how climate change was affecting the land and its native animals. It showed penguins, fur seals and polar bears attempting to adapt to their ever-changing surroundings, against the backdrop of glaciers and arctic volcanoes. A sequence showing a minke whale's desperate break for freedom from a hunting team of killer whales provided an enduring image. For the final episode, titled On Thin Ice, Sir David appeared on screen to give an impassioned speech about the effects of shrinking glaciers and rising temperatures for people and wildlife. A decade later, the sequel went to other regions, where the stunningly-shot natural behaviour was almost as chilling as the temperatures - from gold

Ten of Attenborough's best documentaries

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