Cel Spellman: Friends, how are you? It's Cel Spellman here welcoming you
Cel Spellman: to this very special bonus episode of Call of the
Cel Spellman: Wild. To keep us tidied over until the next episode,
Cel Spellman: we've got some extra bits that didn't make it into
Cel Spellman: our opening episode of my chat with Sir David Attenborough.
Cel Spellman: Now I don't know about you, but I think it's
Cel Spellman: safe to say we could listen to him all day.
Cel Spellman: So without further ado, here he is. Enjoy.
Sir David Attenborough: I just landed almost by accident at the BBC in
Sir David Attenborough: my early 20s. Television was in its very early years
Sir David Attenborough: and almost everything you did was new. And we had
Sir David Attenborough: never taken cameras on television to I don't know, Africa,
Sir David Attenborough: or the Brazil, or Borneo, or something, or New Guinea.
Sir David Attenborough: Nobody had actually seen an armadillo before. Nobody had actually
Sir David Attenborough: seen a sloth moving from trees. Nobody had certainly been
Sir David Attenborough: under water before. People sat there and they were intoxicated
Sir David Attenborough: by the sheer miracle of television actually. And you've just
Sir David Attenborough: put those things and that was the first time they'd
Sir David Attenborough: seen them. So you were incredibly privileged. The world in
Sir David Attenborough: the '50s was beginning to open up and it was
Sir David Attenborough: becoming economically possible to travel quite quickly to Africa. Suddenly
Sir David Attenborough: I put up an idea just out of the blue,
Sir David Attenborough: I thought, "It'd be wonderful to go to Africa." And
Sir David Attenborough: I had a panel of the London Zoo which was
Sir David Attenborough: going on a collecting expedition to collect animals for the
Sir David Attenborough: zoo. And then we put a hard stop of scheme
Sir David Attenborough: that I should go with him and make a film
Sir David Attenborough: about him. And to my amazement, the bosses and (inaudible)
Sir David Attenborough: said, "Well, that's not a bad idea. Is it
Sir David Attenborough: really expensive?" "Oh, no, no."
Cel Spellman: Peanuts.
Sir David Attenborough: Peanuts, yes. A few 100 pounds is all is that
Sir David Attenborough: is required. And they let me do it. And I'm
Sir David Attenborough: sure that I should have done it very, very much
Sir David Attenborough: better if I'd been more experienced or better talented, or
Sir David Attenborough: so whatever. But we got away with it. And we
Sir David Attenborough: managed to get away with it year after year, after year.
Cel Spellman: Would you Say that was maybe where the game changed
Cel Spellman: so to speak, then that first trip to Africa?
Sir David Attenborough: It was the first time that the BBC had ever
Sir David Attenborough: used 60 millimeter film for a start. And it was
Sir David Attenborough: the first time that they had ever commissioned anybody, I
Sir David Attenborough: think to take a camera. Well there was a cameraman,
Sir David Attenborough: old pal of mine called Charles Lager. I put up
Sir David Attenborough: the idea, "We should accompany this man going to the
Sir David Attenborough: London Zoo." And they said, "How long will the BBC,
Sir David Attenborough: how long will it take?" "Three or four months." "Oh
Sir David Attenborough: well, good luck my dear champ and I hope to
Sir David Attenborough: see you at Christmas." I mean, it was that kind
Sir David Attenborough: of organization at that time. It isn't like that anymore.
Cel Spellman: No. So David, what are the biggest transformations or is
Cel Spellman: there a key one that you've witnessed since starting out
Cel Spellman: your career to this moment in time within nature?
Sir David Attenborough: One is that human beings are all pervasive, everywhere that
Sir David Attenborough: you can't get away from human beings anymore. There is
Sir David Attenborough: the oil slicks and bits of plastic floating in the
Sir David Attenborough: remotest part of the oceans. That we have destroyed nature.
Sir David Attenborough: Maybe we'd be so clever that we've found methods, ways,
Sir David Attenborough: and techniques of actually destroying nature in order to put
Sir David Attenborough: in what we choose. And that we've done it without
Sir David Attenborough: thought over vast areas of the planet as though the
Sir David Attenborough: planet belonged only to us. And that we are the
Sir David Attenborough: only ever important organism in the planet which is not
Sir David Attenborough: the case. And it's not just altruism, I'm saying it's
Sir David Attenborough: fair the other organisms should have a place on this
Sir David Attenborough: earth, but in fact, we depend on the natural world.
Sir David Attenborough: As you've just said about, for interest of everything that's
Sir David Attenborough: beautiful and wonderful, but also we depend on it on
Sir David Attenborough: every breath of air we take and on every mouth
Sir David Attenborough: full of food we eat. And if we damage the
Sir David Attenborough: natural world, we are damaging ourselves. And we have been
Sir David Attenborough: doing that without care for decades.
Cel Spellman: I would really love to hear any kind of any
Cel Spellman: top tips you'd have to impart to our listeners and
Cel Spellman: to young people on what they can do to turn
Cel Spellman: things around and make that change.
Sir David Attenborough: Well, I mean the dangers that flicks the natural world
Sir David Attenborough: now are many. One of them is that there are
Sir David Attenborough: so many of us and we are everywhere, and we
Sir David Attenborough: are more powerful than we've ever been. And we should
Sir David Attenborough: have some regard as to how we wield that power
Sir David Attenborough: and some respect for the natural world with which we
Sir David Attenborough: share the world. And of course, you can encourage the
Sir David Attenborough: natural world in all sorts of places, in all sorts...
Sir David Attenborough: even in the cities. There are things you can put
Sir David Attenborough: in a window box that will bring you joy, not
Sir David Attenborough: just flowers. Birds will be coming to your window boxes
Sir David Attenborough: and so on. Even the small garden can produce lovely things.
Cel Spellman: What signs have you seen and examples that tell us
Cel Spellman: that there is hope?
Sir David Attenborough: Oh, well, yes. Well that is how things recover. I
Sir David Attenborough: mean, I made a film, I don't know how long
Sir David Attenborough: it is now, it must be 30, 40 years ago.
Sir David Attenborough: But we went to look at mountain gorillas in Rwanda
Sir David Attenborough: and mountain gorillas at that time were close to extinction
Sir David Attenborough: and they were being poached and killed, really barbaric. I
Sir David Attenborough: mean there were people who would cut the hands off
Sir David Attenborough: at mountain gorilla and stuff them then turn them into
Sir David Attenborough: ashtrays. Can you imagine how viral that would be? And
Sir David Attenborough: there were less than... I think it was about 60
Sir David Attenborough: to 70 of them left. The wonderful American woman called
Sir David Attenborough: Dian Fossey who had habituated these things and allowed to
Sir David Attenborough: get us with our cameras to get close to these
Sir David Attenborough: gorillas because she introduced us to them. And when we
Sir David Attenborough: left, she said, "You must promise me that you would
Sir David Attenborough: do something to help the gorillas." And I did what
Sir David Attenborough: I could when I got back in terms of organizing
Sir David Attenborough: charities and so on. Well today there are more mountain
Sir David Attenborough: gorillas in the world than the world then.
Cel Spellman: We can do it.
Sir David Attenborough: Yes, it can be done.
Cel Spellman: Do you have a life mantra? Do you have something
Cel Spellman: which you've kind of always stuck to whenever you've been
Cel Spellman: making a decision and had the career that you've had?
Cel Spellman: Is there anything you live by?
Sir David Attenborough: No, I can't honestly say that there's any mantra. Anything
Sir David Attenborough: else? I think I learned that what you had to
Sir David Attenborough: do was to do what interests you, even if it
Sir David Attenborough: was not all that lucrative, even if it didn't promise
Sir David Attenborough: you some kind of career or something that... If didn't
Sir David Attenborough: interest you, maybe it's just my moral fiber which is
Sir David Attenborough: not as good as it should be, that if I
Sir David Attenborough: wasn't sufficiently strong minded to do things that I was
Sir David Attenborough: not interested in day, after day, after day, after day.
Sir David Attenborough: And I didn't have too many experiences of doing that.
Sir David Attenborough: But there were occasions in which I did jobs that
Sir David Attenborough: I thought that this is not the way I'm going
Sir David Attenborough: to spend my life. And then I say, kept moving
Sir David Attenborough: on. And then eventually stumbled into broadcasting. And the awful
Sir David Attenborough: thing was that in 1952, nobody was much interested in
Sir David Attenborough: television, really. I mean, it was a kind of a
Sir David Attenborough: hold in the corner thing that happened to North London.
Sir David Attenborough: And it could only be seen... It couldn't be seen
Sir David Attenborough: as the far away as Bristol. And I didn't know
Sir David Attenborough: anything about it either. I applied for a job I
Sir David Attenborough: saw in the newspaper for the BBC to do sound
Sir David Attenborough: radio. And I thought, "Well, anybody can do sound radio."
Sir David Attenborough: I'm (inaudible) to say that, but that I thought
Sir David Attenborough: that everybody could. And I got turned down. And then
Sir David Attenborough: I got a letter from someone who said, "We're starting
Sir David Attenborough: a new thing. It's called television. And lots of people
Sir David Attenborough: are rude about it, so we've got it up at
Sir David Attenborough: Alexander Palace and we've got two studios there. Would you
Sir David Attenborough: be at least interested into seeing whether it was the
Sir David Attenborough: sort of thing you'd be interested in?" "Where?" "Yeah, no
Sir David Attenborough: for true as I say," that's actually what they said.
Sir David Attenborough: "And what we'll do, well, if you are interested, we
Sir David Attenborough: could give you training for six weeks and then... We
Sir David Attenborough: don't necessarily offer you a job because it might not
Sir David Attenborough: suit you, but if you do, then we will think
Sir David Attenborough: about it." So up I went then, and it was
Sir David Attenborough: intoxicating. I mean, it was (inaudible) a minute. I
Sir David Attenborough: mean, nobody could see you much except in North London.
Sir David Attenborough: Well not, it was a bit bigger than that, but
Sir David Attenborough: not much. And of course it was thrilling.
Cel Spellman: I mean, we're so glad that you did and the
Cel Spellman: rest is literally history. So David finally, what would be
Cel Spellman: your pearl of wisdom to younger people who want to
Cel Spellman: make a difference?
Sir David Attenborough: The world's in trouble and they can do something about
Sir David Attenborough: it. But also that they demand the politicians who have
Sir David Attenborough: more power than any single and private individuals should get
Sir David Attenborough: together and solve it. And that it's solvable. We know
Sir David Attenborough: what to do. We know how to do it. All
Sir David Attenborough: that's left is doing it.
Cel Spellman: A massive thank you again to sir David Attenborough for
Cel Spellman: that brilliant interview, safe to say it was one of
Cel Spellman: the best experiences of my life and one that I'm
Cel Spellman: going to cherish forever. Definitely one that I won't forget.
Cel Spellman: And it really has galvanized and motivated me to try
Cel Spellman: and learn more, do as much as I can to
Cel Spellman: try and make a difference and make the world a
Cel Spellman: better, more sustainable, and greener place. And I do hope
Cel Spellman: you'll join me on this journey as well. So there
Cel Spellman: we have it that's it for this bonus episode. Our
Cel Spellman: next episode will be out soon where we'll be focusing
Cel Spellman: on the ocean and how we can reduce the amount
Cel Spellman: of plastic waste that ends up there. Very much looking
Cel Spellman: forward to that. Call of the Wild is a fresh
Cel Spellman: air production for WWF. Subscribe now so you don't miss
Cel Spellman: an episode and you can join the conversation on social
Cel Spellman: media, using the hashtag Call of the Wild. The wild
Cel Spellman: is calling, it's time to act.