Sir David Attenborough

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2012

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway for the 70th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs is Sir David Attenborough.

He has seen more of the world than anyone else who has ever lived - he's visited the north and south poles and witnessed most of the life in-between - from the birds in the canopies of tropical rainforests to giant earthworms in Australia.

But despite his extraordinary travels, there is one part of the globe that's eluded him. As a young man and a keen rock-climber, he yearned to conquer the highest peak in the world. "I won't make it now - I won't make it to base camp now - but as a teenager, I thought that the only thing a red-blooded Englishman really should do was to climb Everest."

Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.
0:06.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.
0:10.0	For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.
0:17.0	Radio 4. The My castaway on this 70th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs is Sir David Attenborough. He has seen more of the world than any person who has ever lived.
0:46.0	The depths of his knowledge and the breadth of his enthusiasm have had a fundamental effect on how we view our planet.
0:53.0	From sitting hugger-mugger with the mountain guerrillas of Rwanda,
0:56.0	to describing the fragilities of the flightless kakapo,
0:59.0	the wonders of the world are his stock in trade.
1:02.0	His passion can be traced right back to the days
1:04.7	when as a lad he cycled his bike through the Leicestershire countryside,
1:07.8	trawling for fossils. He says he knows no deeper pleasure than the contemplation of the natural world.
1:15.0	David Attenborough, you visited the north and south poles,
1:18.0	you've witnessed all of life in between from the canopies of the tropical rainforest to giant earthworms in Australia.
1:24.6	It must be true, mustn't it?
1:26.0	And it's quite a staggering thought that you have seen more of the world than anybody else who has ever
1:31.0	lived.
1:32.0	Well, I suppose so, but then on the other hand it's very
1:35.6	salutary to remember that perhaps the greatest naturalist who ever lived and
1:40.5	had more effect on our thinking than anybody, Charles Darwin, only spent four years
1:45.9	travelling and the rest of the time thinking.
1:49.9	Professionally it was fortunate for you that your career coincided with commercial air travel.
1:54.1	That was one of the reasons why you've been able to reach all these points around the globe.
	...

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