Inside Sir David Attenborough’s first-ever BBC TV show on 70th anniversary-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

It was 70 years ago this week… (Picture: BBC Archives)

This week marks 70 years since Sir David Attenborough made his first-ever TV appearance for the BBC on a show he could call his own.

Sir David had hosted a BBC TV show before, called Animal Disguises, but this was only in a presenting role and was part of a larger programme on children’s TV.

Zoo Quest was different. Sir David was a producer and presenter, convincing BBC bosses to let him share his passion for zoology with the country.

In the 1950s, nature shows and TV programmes about animals were radically different from how we instantly recognise them in the modern day.

Instead of going to see animals in their natural habitats, animals would be brought into a TV studio for presenters and guests to meet and observe them.

Of course, this wasn’t entirely practical, so Sir David set out to make a different kind of nature programme that would see him go to meet the animals instead.

Sir David travelled all over the world for Zoo Quest (Picture: BBC/Sir David Attenborough)

After speaking to some friends at the London Zoo, his idea was ready to get off the ground, and in December 1954, Zoo Quest was broadcast to the nation.

Sir David and his friend Jack Lester, curator of reptiles, went abroad to collect animals and bring them back to Britain to show TV audiences for the first time.

But that didn’t come without problems: As the collection grew, so did the domestic hazards of our lives. For several weeks we had a crocodile in our bath.’

To Borneo, Madagascar, and beyond! (Picture: BBC)

A very young King Charles (centre) met Sir David in the 1950s (Picture: BBC/PA)

He continued: ‘And it was never safe at the breakfast table to open a tin of biscuits without making sure when one did so, the tin did not contain a scorpion or a snake.’

He later said in 1964: ‘How did Zoo Quest begin? Oh, well, it really began because I just jolly well wanted to go abroad. No one should say that. Sounds rather irresponsible.’

Sadly, Lester contracted a tropical illness while working for the show and died in 1956 at the age of just 47 – Sir David took over full presenting duties in the aftermath.

Sir David pitched, presented, and produced Zoo Quest (Picture: BBC)

Audiences are reported to have loved Zoo Quest from the off, with the BBC finding audience surveys that praised Sir David’s infectious personality.

Zoo Quest ran for seven seasons over nine years, sending Sir David to Borneo, Madagascar, and beyond, eventually coming to an end in May 1963.

In 1965, Sir David was named the brand new chief controller of the freshly launched BBC2, which had first broadcast a year earlier.

During his four-year tenure as the head of Britain’s second-largest TV channel, he commissioned The World About Us – a natural history documentary series that lasted for 19 years.

Then, through the 1970s and 1980s, he returned to a more traditional presenting role, fronting TV programmes that travelled to New Guinea, the Netherlands, and the Mediterranean.

In the 21st century, he became best known as the narrator and presenter of Planet Earth, which was, at the time, the most groundbreaking series ever produced about the natural world.

Since then, well into his 90s, he has worked with Netflix and other streaming platforms to deliver more and more nature content.

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