A David Attenborough tribute website

The Attenborough Nature Companion

introduction

This site will be dedicated to everything related to David Attenborough. At the start of his career he was ‘just’ an ordinary ‘David’. That is the way he seems to prefer it as all his books and DVDs, as well as some interviews, indicate. Although he was knighted early in his career he does not seem to prefer the prefix. This project will look beyond his knighthood. For the sake of consistency, therefore, I will never use the ‘Sir’ part. No disrespect is intended.

Despite being a serious fan of Attenborough’s this is not meant to be routine praise. Instead this is meant to be critical. Praise or criticism of material should be on technical grounds.

This site should contain something for everyone, from easily accessible material to pieces that require digging beneath the surface. Some pieces might even be regarded as ‘analytical’ and may be based on more obscure material. I will aim to reflect as many different views as possible but prefer not to take sides.

This site will hopefully develop into a reliable source of information about any of his material.

Basic structure of the project

In the table Attenborough’s works are viewed in two entirely different ways. On the left side the main emphasis is on the more conventional (partly) chronological way where each series is followed regardless of contents. On the right side the thematic view is followed regardless of the series where it occurs.

The material, so far available, consists mainly of parts of Life Collection (concentrating almost exclusively on Life on Earth). Other series are still only dealt with using outline diagrams (see images below).

As discussed later, some people prefer information about certain themes rather than particular series or programmes. For those the thematic view (on the right) is intended. Its splitting is based on the trilogy of Life Collection.

The importance of an outline

A book consists of chapters that may be split further to make the material easier to follow. It also has a table of contents and (often) an index. But Attenborough’s most famous works are TV series, not books.

Any series he has been connected with has been marked with outstanding camerawork. This might make viewers tend to lose track of any story (theme) that could be developing. Keeping track of them would usually make the story even more enjoyable. To overcome this drawback I have ‘developed’ sort of outlines (based on timelines). Since the series are very ‘visual’ it seems only logical to have the same apply to their outlines. This should make them more appealing and easier to grasp but they might become less informative. Sometimes this may not be helpful enough, so a more detailed text version can also be included.

The graphical outline is actually a horizontal time scale between (usually) two views of the programme. The one above shows what the viewer is watching on screen. Since the texts tend to get a bit crammed colours are varied (black near a blue one) to make it clear which texts belong together. The text below explains the theme (animal group in the case below). The series Life on Earth deals with the natural world in its simplest way and most of it is composed of relatively straight forward parts, the animal groups. But not all series are about animal groups so a more general term ‘theme’ has to be used.

In the above image the location of sifakas is given as “(6′-7’35)” which means that the sequence starts 6 minutes into the film and ends 1 minute and 35 seconds later. The exact numbers should, however, not be taken too seriously: Should it start when Attenborough starts talking about the subject or when the subject appears (not necessarily the same moment). The location given should land the user close enough regardless of definition. A more detailed discussion about the use of colours can be found in Life on Earth‘s first episode .

The structure gets more complex in later series. In the programme The Northern Forests in the The Living Planet series Attenborough visits three different types of forests (Main themes in the image below) and follows the changing seasons (Extra themes in the image).

Images, like the one above, may seem complicated. This one reflects the structure of a highly involved programme (The Northern Forests) from The Living Planet. In this programme two sequences are marked specifically: The first one is marking the arrival of migrants which happens when Attenborough has already talked about spring for 10 seconds. This happens while he is talking about the coniferous forests (bottom band of the image). The second is about hibernation when he has already talked about the effects of freezing cold temperatures of winter for almost two minutes late in the section about broad leaved forests.

When looking at the two images above conspicuous “lack of consistency” comes to mind. However, this is not an accident. I’m just testing various ways to reflect what actually happens. There is no single method that works all the way through: While discussing whales (episode 10-“Theme and Variations“) Attenborough’s talk about whales in general overlaps his talk about the humpback. Usually in narrated series, like 7 Worlds, there are frequent pauses when location or subject is being changed. To resolve such ‘problems’ colouring is left obscure. Similar inconsistency also applies to the use of fonts and other details. They are also due to testing.

These themes are very useful to help understand the actual contents of the programme, particularly in the (three) early thematic series. They were used for the tables summarising the collection, they show information that is otherwise not obvious.

Being probably Attenborough’s most famous accomplishment the main part of the project (so far at least) deals with the Life Collection. Although I have already mapped almost all the series I have not managed to convert my ‘shorthand’ way to anything decent enough for this site. That is a work in progress. So far only the Life on Earth series has been uploaded and a part of Living Planet, along with a framework (the timeline) of a few more because they were made so early in his career. Recent series like 7 Worlds should have a special priority.

Every series (and the Life Collection too) will be treated with an introduction. It is basically a summary of Attenborough’s own introduction in his memoir as well as a few extra words. At the end of this ‘treatment’ there will be a retrospective look at the material. Some may find it rather technical, it is meant to be since there is no need for repeats.

Filming locations

Since most series are filmed all over the planet it would have been very tempting to map its locations. Lack of information made this almost impossible to do on an episode-by-episode basis. With a few exceptions there simply isn’t enough data available to warrant the maps. The very first episode and a few others are enjoyable exceptions. Sadly my graphical presentation is very inferior to what has appeared in any of BBC’s publications (companion books or BBC Wildlife magazine).

There is also the appeal of the neighbourhood. Some people may find it more appealing to know what sequences were recorded in their own backyard, so to speak. The French would be more interested in knowing what was filmed in France and so on.

Thematic view

Some people may be more interested in special themes rather than a particular series or a programme. Since they unavoidably overlap one part of the project works as a kind of an Expanded index; a list of where certain subjects occur in a series (or a programme) or possibly a series’ accompanying book. It is not only an index system, it adds comments to the list as appropriate. So far this index is limited to some of the species included in the Dynasties series and a spin off from them (mainly the big cats) but will continue from there. So far it has been restricted to animal groups (the theme of Life on Earth) but may also include environments, the theme of Living Planet and behaviour, the theme of Trials of Life.

Attenborough Nature Companion