# David Attenborough turns 99 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 3, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822 "2025-05-03T12:30:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/1 "2025-05-03T12:30:22Z")
> **[Happy birthday, David Attenborough! 99 ways he has inspired us, by Barack...](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/03/david-attenborough-birthday-99-by-barack-obama-billie-eilish-morgan-freeman)** > > This week the presenter turns 99. To celebrate, we asked 99 nature lovers – including Margaret Atwood, Jane Fonda, Bono, Kate Winslet and Michael Palin – how he has helped us see the world with fresh eyes My hero and what a life. 🎂 Slowly collecting all the BBC Blu Ray 4k discs. I always learn so much. The whole family is remarkable. His brother Richard made his mark on the world . ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/2 "2025-05-03T12:37:46Z")
[Moderating] I don’t think this is a factual question. Since it’s about an entertainer of sorts, let’s move it to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/3 "2025-05-03T12:47:56Z")
> [@MacDoc](#): > > The whole family is remarkable. His brother Richard made his mark on the world The third brother ran a dealership selling Rolls Royce cars. In any other family he would have been considered a great success. ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/4 "2025-05-03T12:59:27Z")
Don’t you just hate these elite families 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/5 "2025-05-03T22:23:17Z")
Depends on what you take “elite” to mean. The Attenborough family–at least Richard and David–seem to have made a lot of contributions to our culture and knowledge. That’s a pretty positive kind of “elite.” ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/6 "2025-05-03T22:35:14Z")
Elite is no negative in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Eric1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3bc359/32.png) [@Eric1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric1)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2025, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/7 "2025-05-03T23:31:29Z")
He is fun to watch and listen to! My nephews and I have watched many of his shows! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/8 "2025-05-04T09:25:14Z")
Here’s a superb snapshot of him in action: [David Attenborough Plays with Cute Baby Gorillas | BBC Earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeaAZ1On-w8) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/9 "2025-05-04T10:28:53Z")
Their father was an academic, and by the sound of it not from a particularly privileged background > **[Frederick Attenborough](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Attenborough)** > > Frederick Levi Attenborough (4 April 1887 – 20 March 1973) was an English academic and principal of University College, Leicester. > He was the son of Mary (née Saxton) and Frederick August Attenborough of Stapleford, Nottinghamshire. His parents were devout Methodists. He was educated at schools in Long Eaton, Derbyshire. He became a teacher at the Long Eaton Higher Elementary School in 1913. The school was founded by Samuel Clegg, the headmaster, in 1910. He married the headmaster's daughter,... ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/10 "2025-05-04T10:32:09Z")
Someone needs to make a documentary about Attenborough’s life, using the exact same tone of voice to describe him and his behavior the way he describes primates. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/11 "2025-05-04T12:25:38Z")
Browsing through his biography on Wikipedia, I was interested to see that in his role as controller of BBC Two in the late 1960s, he commissioned both Kenneth Clark’s _Civilisation_, and Jacob Bronowski’s _The Ascent of Man_. Thus Attenborough is largely responsible for creating those sort of long-form multipart documentary series built around a single on-screen presenter. Thus he brought us not only his own many series, but was indirectly responsible for giving the world things like Sagan’s _Cosmos_, James Burke’s _Connections_, and Simon Schama’s _History of Britain._ ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/12 "2025-05-04T22:17:36Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Their father was an academic, and by the sound of it not from a particularly privileged background Yes, if they were Methodist, they weren’t U. (Good for them, refusing to be limited by the class system!) ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/13 "2025-05-05T08:00:43Z")
I guess the only comparable family in the UK might be the Durrells. > **[The Durrells review: a sweet family entertainment – but beware the dodgy...](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/24/the-durrells-review-sweet-family-entertainment)** > > Apart from an embarrassing cookery malfunction, and the terrifying landlady, the world of these literary expat Brits in sunny 1930s Corfu is as gentle as can be ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/14 "2025-05-05T10:55:44Z")
Intellectually and culturally, there’s also the Darwins/Wedgewoods, Huxleys, Stephens.. Professional elites, perhaps, and comfortably off, but not landed/aristocratic. ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2025, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/15 "2025-05-05T11:14:50Z")
Thinking more in terms of fame if not fortune for siblings. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/16 "2025-05-27T08:52:15Z")
He’s also among those to think for Monty Python! ---
**Author:** ![Ponderoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponderoid/32/19221_2.png) [@Ponderoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponderoid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/david-attenborough-turns-99/1017822/17 "2025-05-27T09:53:52Z")
I thought those chaps thought for themselves?