Madagascar: Island of Marvels
4:15 pm - 5:15 pm, Monday, January 5 on BBC Two HD (102)
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About this Broadcast
Island of Marvels
David Attenborough narrates the story of the island in the Indian Ocean, off the southeastern coast of Africa. It has an ecosystem that has stood in isolation for millions of years, and produced an array of wildlife that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. He begins by observing lemurs in their habitat, male red giraffe-necked weevils fighting each other, the courting rituals of chameleons, and the behaviour of spiders and fossas
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Did You Know..
David Attenborough
(Narrator)
Born:
May 08, 1926
in
London
Best Known For:
His more than 50 years of broadcasting.
Early-life:
Born David Frederick Attenborough on May 8, 1926, in London, son of an academic and principal of Leicester University College. He had two brothers - Johnny, who had a car dealership, and film director and actor Richard. During World War Two, his parents also adopted two German Jewish girls, who arrived in Britain as part of the Kindertransport. Attenborough went to Leicester's Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys before studying geology at Cambridge. He served two years in the Royal Navy.
Career:
Attenborough joined the BBC in 1952, making his reputation with the groundbreaking Zoo Quest series, which he hosted for 10 years. He became controller of BBC2 in 1965, overseeing the advent of colour TV, and in 1969 was made BBC director of programming. In 1973, he returned to presenting with the series Eastwards With Attenborough and The Tribal Eye. In 1979, he wrote and presented Life On Earth and its sequel The Living Planet in 1984. The following year, he was knighted. He has since made several more programmes, such as Life in the Freezer (about Antarctica; 1993), The Private Life of Plants (1995), The Life of Birds (1998), The Life of Mammals (2002), Life in the Undergrowth (2005) and Life in Cold Blood (2008), First Life (2010), Frozen Planet (2011) and Life Story (2014). He continues to narrate and present documentaries.
Quote:
"I'm not sure there's any need for a new Attenborough. The more you go on, the less you need people standing between you and the animal and the camera waving their arms about."
Trivia:
In addition to his knighthood, Attenborough has also been awarded more than 30 honorary degrees and has several species and fossils named after him.
Mary Summerill
(Series producer)
Mike Gunton
(Executive producer)
