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David Attenborough
My take on his enduring popularity is his almost childlike-enthusiasm for his subject matter which age has not withered. Of course his palette is natural history and the treasure it holds is beyond comparison (more on this can be found on the Dvd review pages) but he is always in wonder at what he is describing and conveys that like no other.
That and his natural likeability. He just doesn't seem to have a bad bone in his body. The British public love their presenters to be genuinely nice with an easy charm (someone we can relate to who could almost live next-door) and no-one is nicer than Attenborough. That is not a criticism or being sarcastic - being 'nice' is something sadly lacking in British society these days. To see it on the small-screen is kind of like finding a safe-harbour from the awful world mankind has created outside our windows. The natural in natural history seen through the eyes of a decent man is an unbeatable combination.
Attenborough is to TV what Turner was to painting. He takes what is 'there' and makes us see it in a new, beautiful light. And as TV is in most living rooms up and down the land most of us have gotten to see that genius. A pretty powerful easy charm.
Modest he may be but that is his legacy, his reality.
A wonderful man in his wonderful world.
© - Paul Page (2011)
Sir David Attenborough, born David Frederick Attenborough in London, UK on the 8th May 1926, the younger brother of actor and director Lord Richard Attenborough.
He never expressed a wish to act, and instead studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, graduating in 1947, the year he began his two years National Service in the Royal Navy. In 1952, he joined BBC Television at Alexandra Palace, and in 1954 began his famous Zoo Quest series. When not Zoo Questing he presented political broadcasts, archaeological quizzes, short stories, gardening and religious programmes.
1965 saw the start of BBC2, Britain"s third TV channel, with Attenborough as its Controller. As such, he was responsible for the introduction of colour television into Britain, and also for bringing Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) to the world. In 1969, he was appointed Director of Programmes with editorial responsibility for both the BBC's television networks. Eight years behind a desk was too much for him, and he resigned in 1973 to return to programme making. First came Eastwards with Attenborough, a natural history series set in South East Asia, then
The Tribal Eye, examining tribal art. In 1979 he wrote and presented all 13 parts of Life on Earth (1979) (then the most ambitious series ever produced by the BBC Natural History Unit). This became a trilogy, with The Living Planet (1984) (TV) and The Trials of Life (1990).
His services to television were recognised in 1985, and he was knighted to become Sir David Attenborough. The two shorter series,
The First Eden and Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives were fitted around 1993's spectacular Life in the Freezer (1993), a celebration of Antarctica and
1995's epic The Private Life of Plants, (1995), which he wrote and presented.
Filming the beautiful birds of paradise for Attenborough in Paradise in 1996 fulfilled a lifelong ambition, putting him near his favourite bird. Entering his seventies he narrated the award-winning Wildlife Specials (1997), marking 40 years of the BBC Natural History Unit. But he was not slowing down, as he completed the epic 10-part series for the BBC, The Life of Birds (1998) along with writing and presenting the three part series State of the Planet (2000) as well as The Life of Mammals (2002). Once broadcast, he began planning his next projects.
He has received honorary degrees from many universities across the world, and is patron or supporter of many charitable organisations, including acting as Patron of the World Land Trust, which buys rain forest and other lands to preserve them and the animals that live there.
He was married to his wife, Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel, from 1950 to her death in 1997. They had two children.
He lives in Richmond, Surrey.
David Attenborough Dvds/Books @ amazon.co.uk 
Trivia Random
In 2010, whilst workmen built an extension at the Richmond home of Sir David Attenborough, they unearthed a skull in his garden. It is almost certainly that of Richmond resident, Julia Martha Thomas, murdered in 1879 by her maid, Katherine Webster. More on this story can be found here.
A dinosaur, the Attenborosaurus, has been named after Sir David.
His boyhood hero was Captain Scott, the Antarctic explorer.
He believes there is 'very convincing' evidence that yetis exist. Speaking in 2009 he said:
On not being able to halt climate change he said: 'We can never go back, there's no doubt about that... it's the speed at which we're changing. Before, it was thousands of years and now it's decades... but we can slow down the rate at which we change.'
He lives alone surrounded by tribal artefacts and ethnic paintings in a handsome Edwardian house in Richmond-upon-Thames.
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David Attenborough (24 Disc BBC Box Set) [DVD] []