0:00:12 > 0:00:16David Attenborough has travelled the globe countless times
0:00:16 > 0:00:19- to film the living world in all its wonder.- A-ha.
0:00:19 > 0:00:26In a career that spans the age of television itself, he has pioneered new filming technologies,
0:00:26 > 0:00:32produced some of the most iconic moments in broadcasting,
0:00:32 > 0:00:34and inspired a generation.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37The blue whale!
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Now, in his 80s, he's on the road again, travelling across
0:00:40 > 0:00:46continents and oceans to shoot the latest instalment in his epic account of life on earth.
0:00:46 > 0:00:53This is a film about the life and evolution of a very rare species,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55caught on camera in HIS natural habitat.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10David is making an extraordinary journey around the world
0:01:10 > 0:01:15to film his latest landmark series, the story of the origin of life.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25David Attenborough's First Life is the series that will fulfil
0:01:25 > 0:01:31his ambition to document and film all the stages of life on earth.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Over the last 30-odd years I've been filming
0:01:33 > 0:01:37the range and variety of animals and plants that live on the world today.
0:01:37 > 0:01:42What has been missing is the very beginning of the story.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45We've always started at chapter two.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50So, I just want to go back and show where this whole thing started.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58When I was a boy, that was regarded as totally unknown.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04There was no evidence of how life started and today there's evidence.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14The first piece of evidence was unearthed just 100 miles north of David's London home.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17This is the Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21As a schoolboy, I grew up near here.
0:02:21 > 0:02:28This was where, in the 1930s, David first developed a passion for the natural world and fossils.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34This is the beginning of the journey for David.
0:02:34 > 0:02:35This is where, as a young boy,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39he looked and found fossils that got him fired up
0:02:39 > 0:02:41and it really started his career.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It's 70-odd years since David was walking these woods
0:02:44 > 0:02:47and cycling around them and now, we're back here.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53When I was a boy, growing up in the Midlands, in Leicester,
0:02:53 > 0:02:58the rocks and limestone we found in the east of the county were full of the most magical things.
0:02:58 > 0:03:04You hit a stone and it suddenly fell open and there was this amazing coil shell - beautiful and extraordinary,
0:03:04 > 0:03:08and nobody had seen that for 150 million years, except you.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11So, I thought it was very romantic and exciting.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15It appealed to the small boy's instinct of collecting things
0:03:15 > 0:03:20that, to be honest, I don't think I've really lost, but I certainly had it then.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I was a passionate fossil collector.
0:03:23 > 0:03:29But I never came to look for them in this part of Charnwood and then a boy
0:03:29 > 0:03:35from my very own school, just a few years after I left it, made an astounding discovery.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40I can't remember where I heard about the discovery of a Charnia,
0:03:40 > 0:03:46but I certainly kicked myself and I thought "I could have been part of history.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48"I could have discovered that.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50"Why didn't I bother to look?"
0:03:50 > 0:03:51And this is it.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56It's called and is known around the world as Charnia,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00after the forest in which it was discovered.
0:04:00 > 0:04:03David is as passionate about fossils today as he
0:04:03 > 0:04:08was as a boy, an interest that was nurtured by his academic parents.
0:04:08 > 0:04:15He was the middle of three sons, born to Mary and Frederick.
0:04:15 > 0:04:21The family lived in a house in the grounds of what is now Leicester University,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23just half a mile down the road
0:04:23 > 0:04:25from the museum where he is filming now.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Yes, there we are.
0:04:30 > 0:04:37That was University - well, it was, as the press were quick to point, out a lunatic asylum.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41It was taken over by the University College, you see.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46And we lived in that which was the superintendent's house, College House.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50There was the big park, Victoria Park.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53There's my father.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57He was principal of the University College in the 1930s
0:04:57 > 0:05:00and there he is, looking younger than me,
0:05:00 > 0:05:07though he didn't have any hair. But not since he was about 28, I think.
0:05:07 > 0:05:12David has two brothers - John and Richard, with Richard growing up
0:05:12 > 0:05:16to become an actor and Oscar-winning director.
0:05:16 > 0:05:20So what was the inspiration that drove the boys to such success?
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Perhaps it was their sense of adventure, as they explored
0:05:24 > 0:05:27the building that was once a psychiatric hospital.
0:05:27 > 0:05:34There were great areas of it that were still in the condition of them being a Victorian lunatic asylum,
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and that included padded cells.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41We, as boys, used to wander around there,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45getting in in various ways, which I suppose we shouldn't have done.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49My elder brother Richard took me into this padded cell and shut the door.
0:05:49 > 0:05:56That was horrible because inside it was all quilted and where the door shut there was no handle on the door.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59So you couldn't even see where the door was
0:05:59 > 0:06:05and you knew that you could scream to your heart's content, or as loud as you wished,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08and nobody could possibly hear you.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10That was not a pleasant sensation.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13I must remind him of it some time!
0:06:19 > 0:06:23David went to Cambridge to read natural sciences and that enabled him
0:06:23 > 0:06:27to indulge his growing fascination with the natural world.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31It's a passion that still drives him on today.
0:06:32 > 0:06:38David's journey to discover the origins of all life is going to take him around the entire planet,
0:06:38 > 0:06:45encompassing four different continents and 40,000 miles.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50First stop, Morocco, in North Africa.
0:06:53 > 0:06:54We're here for trilobites.
0:06:54 > 0:07:02Trilobites are the most extraordinary, wonderful fossils.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Here are some of the wonderfully prepared specimens.
0:07:06 > 0:07:11Happily, and very, very fortunately, the world's greatest expert on trilobites -
0:07:11 > 0:07:16or certainly one of the first three - Richard Fortey, an old friend of mine,
0:07:16 > 0:07:22is here to show us around, so we should be in for a very privileged time.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26I think they are just about as good
0:07:26 > 0:07:28as you can get with preparation.
0:07:28 > 0:07:29They look stunning.
0:07:29 > 0:07:35Trilobites are principal characters in the story of the first life on earth.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39They were one of the most successful kinds of animal in history.
0:07:39 > 0:07:46There are 50,000 species that we know of, and probably many more undiscovered.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51They were the first animals to see a fully-formed picture,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54using lenses in their eyes, made of rock.
0:07:54 > 0:08:01In their heyday, they dominated the globe for 250 million years.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Humans have been around for just two.
0:08:10 > 0:08:11What's that ridge there?
0:08:11 > 0:08:13That is rock still in.
0:08:13 > 0:08:15That is the system we use.
0:08:15 > 0:08:21He very carefully left these for us to see the process in development, you see.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23- You're an artist.- Thanks very much.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26- You really are. - Thank you very, very much.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29Before filming begins tomorrow,
0:08:29 > 0:08:33David has a chance to pick out the best specimens for the programme.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37He's also on the lookout for a few pieces to add to his private collection.
0:08:37 > 0:08:39What sort of price are we thinking about?
0:08:39 > 0:08:44I have reserved all for a long time, for you, more than three months.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Thank you again very much.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53- You are welcome any time, no problem.- Thank you.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02If I was Mr Moneybags, I would have bought the Ordovician ones, the new ones, on the spot.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06Which was the one that really blew you away, David?
0:09:06 > 0:09:09That was 15K.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27The fossils David has just seen are the best there are.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33But other trilobites are widely prepared and sold in the towns and villages of this part of Morocco.
0:09:33 > 0:09:40But, to an expert eye, there is something about some of these fossils that doesn't quite add up.
0:09:40 > 0:09:41It's a nice little specimen.
0:09:41 > 0:09:48Well, I've never seen a trident bearer with a great long flared
0:09:48 > 0:09:54median prong on its stripe, so either it's true, in which case it's weird,
0:09:54 > 0:09:58or it's been, let's say nature been helped along a little bit.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00If it's fake, it's carefully done.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04I've seen lots of different ones in my time.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06I've never seen that before.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Or maybe it's pathological.
0:10:10 > 0:10:11A diseased trilobite.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16We don't want one of them, not round these parts!
0:10:16 > 0:10:20You don't want anybody catching anything.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25A-ha. Thank you.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28- Thank you.- This one?
0:10:28 > 0:10:31This one I like but it's too much.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34Give me 1,000 dirham, it's a good price. It's a good price.
0:10:34 > 0:10:37750?
0:10:37 > 0:10:39No. 1,000.
0:10:39 > 0:10:44- 800? 800?- 90.
0:10:44 > 0:10:45850?
0:10:47 > 0:10:4890 dirham.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50850?
0:10:50 > 0:10:5290.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54It's very sad.
0:10:56 > 0:10:57- How much?- OK. OK.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00- OK?- Yes.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02- Shake on it.- 850?
0:11:02 > 0:11:04OK.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07Thank you very much.
0:11:07 > 0:11:15At 850 Moroccan dirham, David's got a bargain - that's roughly £70.
0:11:15 > 0:11:2120, 200, 400, 600, 800 and 50.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30With the shopping spree over, work begins.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36David is filming at a local museum
0:11:36 > 0:11:38where there's a collection of some of the strangest
0:11:38 > 0:11:40and largest trilobites in existence.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Action.
0:11:42 > 0:11:48The shape of these eyes can in themselves tell us a great deal about the way the animal lived.
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Some of these - we're talking...
0:11:52 > 0:11:55thousands of pounds of some of these things,
0:11:55 > 0:11:55if not tens of
0:11:55 > 0:11:57thousands of pounds,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01of something that's completely unknown to science and spectacular to boot.
0:12:03 > 0:12:10There is a sort of a standard rule about this, that when you see a really lovely thing -
0:12:10 > 0:12:16and you're silly enough to say that's a really lovely thing -
0:12:16 > 0:12:21the person concerned said, "Of course, private collection".
0:12:21 > 0:12:24I have some for sale, but that one is my collection.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31I think every time you ask whether it's a private collection or not,
0:12:31 > 0:12:35- it goes up by another multiple, you see.- This one is my collection.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Are the other ones curled up?
0:12:39 > 0:12:42Are they as beautifully prepared as that?
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Nice.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50What sort of money?
0:12:50 > 0:12:54OK. Until I show it to you, I can't tell you.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02David Attenborough is a name that is synonymous with television.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08First Life will be his 50th series as a presenter.
0:13:08 > 0:13:14But surprising as it seems, his long career in TV began quite by chance.
0:13:14 > 0:13:23I saw an advertisement in The Times for a sound radio job which I applied for and didn't even get an interview,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25but a week or so afterwards,
0:13:25 > 0:13:31I got a letter from someone who said they'd got this new thing called television, would I be interested?
0:13:31 > 0:13:35Then they said they would pay me £1,000 to go on the training course.
0:13:35 > 0:13:42That was three times what I was being paid at the time in the publishers so I thought I would give it a go.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Television in the '50s was brand-new, with the BBC
0:13:45 > 0:13:48providing the first public service programmes in Europe.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53David had never seen a television programme before,
0:13:53 > 0:13:58but nevertheless began work as a trainee at Alexandra Palace.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02I was apprenticed to a producer who was regarded as a very experienced man
0:14:02 > 0:14:07because he'd been there for three months and he had already produced one programme, you know,
0:14:07 > 0:14:13so he knew where everything was, so I joined him and we worked on a quiz called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.
0:14:16 > 0:14:21David's obsession with mysterious objects of the past was put to good use behind the scenes.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25Lovely, isn't it? A very...
0:14:25 > 0:14:30It was his job to source artefacts to be identified by a panel of esteemed academics.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34..and there, what my Hungarian colleagues would call...
0:14:34 > 0:14:40David's academic background and his analytical mind
0:14:40 > 0:14:45gave him an affinity with scholars and scientists that endures to this day.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48I've known David for rather a long time
0:14:48 > 0:14:52and we certainly share certain aspects of humour.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57Somebody should make a proper feature movie,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01about trilobites called Thoracic Park!
0:15:07 > 0:15:09This horse is unfit for heavy work.
0:15:13 > 0:15:21One of the great privileges is having an expert like Richard Fortey, who is a world authority on these...
0:15:21 > 0:15:25particular animals and who knows this locality very well.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29Richard is now stomping around on the horizon.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34It will be very interesting - I bet you he comes back and he'll say,
0:15:34 > 0:15:42you know, there was a nice one and he shows you this, that and the other.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47What do you think of the chances of this being a piece of worked jasper?
0:15:47 > 0:15:50In other words, you think this is a spear point?
0:15:50 > 0:15:57I think it is. I think it's got a broken tip and probably was thrown away, or discarded, do you think?
0:15:57 > 0:16:02I do. It's jolly old because it's got this polish on it, wind polish.
0:16:02 > 0:16:10Yes. I think also that that is probably a xerophytic horsetail, which I didn't know existed.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14I was just going to borrow your lens to have a look to see if it has got the characteristic joints.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17I've got the characteristic joints!
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Certainly falling to bits, the way they always do.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25David's appetite for knowledge is insatiable.
0:16:28 > 0:16:32And in the 1950s, that hunger drove him to come up with a programme idea
0:16:32 > 0:16:38that would provide the perfect opportunity to travel and film in the remotest parts of the world.
0:16:38 > 0:16:43I had a friend in London Zoo and he and I cooked up an idea
0:16:43 > 0:16:45that the London Zoo should send out a collecting expedition,
0:16:45 > 0:16:51which of course we wouldn't conceivably do now, but in those days it was possible.
0:16:51 > 0:16:57And the idea would be that I would accompany this chap,
0:16:57 > 0:17:02who was an expert on snakes, and I would see him pouncing on a snake and then from that film sequence,
0:17:02 > 0:17:10we would go to him in the studio live with the same snake and he be able to talk about the details.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12That was the basis, called Zoo Quest.
0:17:15 > 0:17:19The series didn't quite turn out as planned for David the producer.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Jack Lester was the man from the zoo and he acquired a tropical disease,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25he collapsed after the first show
0:17:25 > 0:17:31and the head of my department, or the head of television said, "Oh look, if Jack Lester can't do it,
0:17:31 > 0:17:35"the show's got to go on - the only other person there who could do is Attenborough.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40"Tell him he has to leave the producer's gallery and go down on the floor and do it."
0:17:40 > 0:17:43We spent the first part of our trip in Paraguay...
0:17:43 > 0:17:46From those first moments in front of the camera,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50David has had plenty of time to hone his distinctive presenting style.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58His 50-year career in television spans the life of the industry itself.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05The First Life shoot has moved to Australia
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and this morning he's performing the same ritual
0:18:08 > 0:18:14he has gone through hundreds of times before.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16What is the piece in your head now?
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Very good question.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22You've got to convey something, some fact, you've got to get it right.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28In 1946, geologist Reg Sprigg found fossils here in the Ediacara Hills...
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Once having got it right in your mind, you then try and put it into words.
0:18:33 > 0:18:36..Which, until that moment...
0:18:36 > 0:18:39had been, until... no...
0:18:39 > 0:18:47And the first words that come out of my lips at any rate are jumbled, and confused, and...
0:18:47 > 0:18:51circumlocutory, and fumbling for exactitude.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55It was the discovery of, in the Charnwood Forest,
0:18:55 > 0:19:00the creature in what was undoubtedly pre-cambrian...
0:19:00 > 0:19:06And then you decide that that will distil into the following sentences.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08- That is the gist.- OK.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12Very difficult to think about it when someone is fumbling in your genitals!
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It's sort of tricky.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19It was a discovery in 1957...
0:19:19 > 0:19:24I have to walk up and down and say it to myself and hope I'll be able to say it to the camera.
0:19:24 > 0:19:33In 1946, an Australian geologist, Reg Sprigg, working here in the Ediacara Hills of South Australia...
0:19:33 > 0:19:40David's trademark delivery has endeared him to millions and the producers of Zoo Quest
0:19:40 > 0:19:46saw that talent grow. He was given the job of presenter on a permanent basis.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49I explained to the men as best I could that I had come to their
0:19:49 > 0:19:52valley to try and get some of the birds of paradise alive.
0:19:52 > 0:19:58But they explained to me in gestures that they shot the birds with bows and arrows.
0:20:01 > 0:20:05Making a documentary isn't all about talking to camera.
0:20:05 > 0:20:11David understands better than anyone else that some sequences are a necessary chore.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13We're going to do some tracking shots,
0:20:13 > 0:20:15vehicle to vehicle tracking shots.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18We're going to have Pete in the back of this vehicle, leading vehicle,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22shooting backwards and we've got David and Jim in this vehicle...
0:20:25 > 0:20:30It's one of the rewards that you get, the real joys of driving up there and then they say,
0:20:30 > 0:20:34would you drive back, and then they say, we think we'd like it a little faster
0:20:34 > 0:20:37and then they say, we were wrong.
0:20:37 > 0:20:43It was better a little bit slower, so would you go back again? So it's actually not the pits of filming,
0:20:43 > 0:20:48the pits of filming is when you have to walk through the forest looking interested.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53And not only interested, but eagle-eyed.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57You say, "Where will this experienced traveller
0:20:57 > 0:21:02"suddenly spot the... My goodness, there it is!"
0:21:02 > 0:21:04That's hard doing.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07There are variations - you can give them the John Wayne, which
0:21:07 > 0:21:12is tight-buttocked like that - that is one of my specialities!
0:21:12 > 0:21:18I'm not allowed to do it much these days. I have to be a bit more slouched and relaxed, you know.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21But of course intelligent, which is the tricky bit.
0:21:21 > 0:21:22That was lovely.
0:21:22 > 0:21:27I loved it, when he asked us to do it again slightly faster, what a thrill!
0:21:27 > 0:21:30We only had your enjoyment in mind!
0:21:38 > 0:21:44David is filming with a team of palaeontologists in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia,
0:21:44 > 0:21:50unearthing fossils that describe how early animals evolved.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54How and why did animals first begin to move?
0:21:57 > 0:21:57There is a great thrill
0:21:57 > 0:22:01of being alongside these people who know what they're doing
0:22:01 > 0:22:04and know what they're looking for and know how to look for it.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08And of course, you naively think it would be wonderful
0:22:08 > 0:22:11to turn over a rock and say, "Ah! It's a new species!"
0:22:11 > 0:22:18Well, looking for fossils is not like that, except that it actually happened.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19That's just contributed about...
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Have a look! Have a look!
0:22:25 > 0:22:29And there it was, and Jim took a brush and brushed it away.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32And bless me, he said, I don't know, I don't know.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36- Look at that. - That is what I would just...
0:22:36 > 0:22:38It's the weirdest one I've ever seen.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41I've never seen one with that...
0:22:41 > 0:22:43It's the relief...
0:22:43 > 0:22:45It has to be a footprint.
0:22:45 > 0:22:51And we're still waiting as to hear whether in fact that was the discovery moment of a new species.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53I think it probably was.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01The mud on the sea floor can tell us a great deal
0:23:01 > 0:23:05about these animals and not just what they look like, but how they behaved.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08One appears on the telly and everybody thinks you're an expert,
0:23:08 > 0:23:15but I had, last Christmas, some new neighbours came over
0:23:15 > 0:23:19and I'd ever met them before but the lady said,
0:23:19 > 0:23:27Oh just the person I want to meet because little Julian is so excited about natural history, thrilled,
0:23:27 > 0:23:33"He'll be thrilled to meet you and he's got some questions for you," and I thought oh, dear, oh, dear.
0:23:33 > 0:23:40Come along, Julian, ask Sir David the questions. Julian said, "How long is the komodo dragon?"
0:23:40 > 0:23:44Big relief. I said, "Well, as a matter of fact,
0:23:44 > 0:23:51"Julian, I can tell you the answer to that. I said, I've been to Komodo three times.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56"And I've actually measured them and they can grow to 12 feet long."
0:23:56 > 0:23:58And he said, "Wrong!"
0:24:04 > 0:24:07He'd been reading too much Guinness Book of Records.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10This is a side-necked turtle.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15Over six series of Zoo Quest, komodo dragons were just one of the
0:24:15 > 0:24:18many species David encountered, collecting animals for London Zoo.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23They couldn't take them all so David stepped in -
0:24:23 > 0:24:29his home became a menagerie with his wife and children helping with the upkeep of the animals.
0:24:29 > 0:24:36We had a pair of lemurs at home and some lovely birds called blue-crowned hanging parakeets,
0:24:36 > 0:24:41which we brought back from Borneo, and chameleons. We had a breeding colony of bush babies.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47They had an unfortunate habit of peeing on their hands
0:24:47 > 0:24:52and then rubbing their hands together and patting everything around to make them smell good.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57Friends coming to dinner would arrive and open the door and you
0:24:57 > 0:25:00could see them dilate their nostrils and think,
0:25:00 > 0:25:05That's not mulligatawny soup, what are we going to have for dinner tonight?
0:25:05 > 0:25:11I regret to say it was bush baby urine so, after a bit, my dear wife thought this
0:25:11 > 0:25:17was not compatible with domestic hospitality and one thing and the other so we got rid of them.
0:25:17 > 0:25:21David, of course, is famous for his love of animals.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26To help tell the story of the first life on earth,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30he's in a rainforest in north-west Australia filming living fossils,
0:25:30 > 0:25:33animals with evolutionary links to the past.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35David, we're going to be on close-ups on the animal,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38but it might help us if you deliver your line anyway.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43I think for me the highlight was in the rainforest when David was
0:25:43 > 0:25:51there with this little velvet worm on his hand and his connection with animals just really came through,
0:25:51 > 0:25:57you could see he adored this little creature, this weird worm crawling on his arm.
0:25:57 > 0:25:58Action, David.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01And this is what I was looking for.
0:26:01 > 0:26:10This extraordinary and enchanting little creature, sometimes called a velvet worm...
0:26:10 > 0:26:15He just, you know, he gave it personality and he was in awe of this thing.
0:26:15 > 0:26:22Just to see that was such an enlightening thing, sitting in the middle of a rainforest
0:26:22 > 0:26:24with fireflies popping off all around you,
0:26:24 > 0:26:29you have to pinch yourself because it had a dream-like quality to it.
0:26:29 > 0:26:36It has one further attribute which Ayesha could not have had.
0:26:36 > 0:26:41It has tiny little holes all along its flanks which enable it
0:26:41 > 0:26:44to breathe air,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49so this is one of the first creatures
0:26:49 > 0:26:51that moved on to land
0:26:51 > 0:26:55540 million years ago.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12- Nice one.- Yes.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14- Yes, it's the ring tailed gecko. - What's your favourite gecko?
0:27:14 > 0:27:17The tokay gecko.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22It goes to-kay, to-kay.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27And in Indonesia most people are terrified of it and they said one bite, certain death.
0:27:27 > 0:27:35And I caught one once and I said, Look, they're absolutely harmless, you see, and I pointed my finger,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Nothing to be afraid of, and the gecko went like this,
0:27:38 > 0:27:43and I said, nothing to be frightened of, it's not poisonous at all.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46But I couldn't get it off.
0:27:46 > 0:27:54I put it on to a tap, I pulled it, it just hung on and hung on and it was on for...
0:27:54 > 0:28:00After about five minutes, you get quite bored with it, and it was quite upsetting, it was a very long time.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03I didn't come clever dick again for quite some time.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08Ten minutes, maybe!
0:28:11 > 0:28:13Action. Cue David.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17As the oxygen levels rose, so eventually they reached
0:28:17 > 0:28:22a level when it was possible for air-breathing animals to live.
0:28:22 > 0:28:23Crikey.
0:28:27 > 0:28:28As they say in Australia, got the bastard!
0:28:30 > 0:28:35- They only come in ones, do they? - Limited edition. Two wafers.
0:28:35 > 0:28:37I think one of the great things
0:28:37 > 0:28:38about working with David
0:28:38 > 0:28:40is that he fits in with the team around him
0:28:40 > 0:28:43and is interested in everybody in the team.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Being part of a team is one of the pleasures.
0:28:45 > 0:28:50It takes some time to become a team, you can't just slot
0:28:50 > 0:28:55in like that because it depends upon knowing the personalities
0:28:55 > 0:28:58of the people you're involved with.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03I suppose in one way if you going on long journeys together with people, you ought to be,
0:29:03 > 0:29:10to do a job, you ought to be sufficiently professional to be able to get on with anybody.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13And if you find that the way they comb their hair or
0:29:13 > 0:29:17something is irritating, then you learn to suppress that irritation.
0:29:17 > 0:29:22But one of the ways, once you begin to sort that out,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25you do begin to develop jokes between you.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34To illustrate the evolution of backboned animals,
0:29:34 > 0:29:38David is on his way to a zoo to film a white rhino.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44He'll be delivering his lines just inches from the two tonne animal,
0:29:44 > 0:29:47so even David must be briefed on safety.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53HORN BLARES
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Well, you can hand feed him if you are happy to do that,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00otherwise you can just pop that leaves in over the log.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04There's no danger of him giving me a nip with his front teeth?
0:30:04 > 0:30:06He won't be able to nip you. He won't do that.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Obviously, as you know, the lips are very muscly.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13Accustomed as I am to rhinoceros feeding,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16the problem is a trivial one, really.
0:30:16 > 0:30:21Just you might lose in your hand at the wrist, that's all, you know? Nothing to worry about, really!
0:30:21 > 0:30:23The lips are very muscular,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26so you might lose a finger or two,
0:30:26 > 0:30:31but nothing really to worry about, you know, I'm told!
0:30:33 > 0:30:36I was driving through Kenya once.
0:30:36 > 0:30:44The chap I was with was a very knowledgeable biologist and an expert on elephants.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Suddenly he said, "Did you hear that pitter-patter?"
0:30:47 > 0:30:51And I said, "No, what?" He said, "Well, we were charged by a rhino."
0:30:51 > 0:30:55I said, "We were?" "Yes", he said, "but it was a dummy charge."
0:30:55 > 0:30:58There was another pitter-patter, but this time it didn't fade away.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02This time, wallop, hit the back end of the Land Rover
0:31:02 > 0:31:05and actually lifted it up and shook it.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09And I remember seeing his hands on the wheel
0:31:09 > 0:31:13showing white at the knuckles as the thing came a second time.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16Crash! Bang! And it shook.
0:31:16 > 0:31:23And then he backed off, and I said, "Hell of a dummy charge that, Roy."
0:31:23 > 0:31:27He said, "Don't joke!" He came in the third time, wrecked the back wheel,
0:31:27 > 0:31:31ripped up the tyre
0:31:31 > 0:31:34and by the time he'd finished, the car was undrivable.
0:31:38 > 0:31:44David can't go anywhere without being recognised by someone. His popularity spans the generations.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48Please keep it up. It's the only stuff on telly worth watching!
0:31:54 > 0:31:57And this level of fame is something he's had to get used to.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04By the mid-Sixties, David Attenborough had become a household name.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07- Mr David Attenborough, here. - Bless his heart.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Then, still in his thirties, an unexpected opportunity came his way.
0:32:13 > 0:32:19The BBC needed young blood to run their brand-new channel, BBC Two.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24I remember deliberately saying to myself, "Now, you've got to make up
0:32:24 > 0:32:29"your mind, Attenborough, are you a television man or are you some kind of scientist?"
0:32:29 > 0:32:35I decided at that time that I was really at heart a television man.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Therefore, if I was a television man,
0:32:37 > 0:32:43there could not be a more interesting job in television than that one that was being offered to me.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46We shall continue to look for the new stars, the experimental stars.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54As Controller of BBC Two, David introduced a new wave of programming
0:32:54 > 0:32:57that would stand the test of time.
0:32:57 > 0:33:02He also pioneered a whole new era of television as the BBC raced
0:33:02 > 0:33:07to make Britain the first nation in Europe to broadcast in colour.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Then, of course, we discovered that in fact Germany
0:33:10 > 0:33:14was preparing to going into colour and this,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17you must remember, this was in the Sixties
0:33:17 > 0:33:21and so there was still a sort of feeling about Germany, you know?
0:33:21 > 0:33:25We'd just won the war, after all, and I was thinking,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28"Come on, the BBC should be the first in colour in Europe."
0:33:28 > 0:33:33And it suddenly dawned on me we could use colour cameras in Wimbledon
0:33:33 > 0:33:37and with just four or five colour cameras, which is all I think we had,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40we could get hours and hours and hours of colour television.
0:33:40 > 0:33:44We would launch as soon as we could do at least
0:33:44 > 0:33:4950% of the programmes in colour and Wimbledon allowed us to do that.
0:33:49 > 0:33:53And what is more, it allowed us to get on the air before Germany did!
0:33:53 > 0:33:58David's challenge was to promote the virtues of colour TV.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00He came up with a new concept,
0:34:00 > 0:34:06a series of big budget programmes designed to showcase colour in all its glory.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09The first of this new genre of landmark programmes,
0:34:09 > 0:34:14known then as Sledgehammers, was an arts programme called Civilisation.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18It was going to be the finest things that Western Europeans had produced
0:34:18 > 0:34:23artistically from the beginning of the 5th, 6th century onwards,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26which simply had a phenomenal success.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29BBC Two was riding high,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32so we commissioned Ascent Of Man there and then.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38Ascent Of Man was the model for science television.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43If I'm to take the ascent of man back to its beginnings...
0:34:43 > 0:34:47It set a trend for the epic programming for which David is now synonymous.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54And epic programmes need epic shots.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58So somebody needs to be up on the hill who can give David the cue.
0:35:02 > 0:35:08'Standing by for a take. Yes, Kirsty.'
0:35:08 > 0:35:11For here you can see fossils
0:35:13 > 0:35:17of the very first animals that evolved on this planet.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25'That was good for us.'
0:35:28 > 0:35:32This location is a key place in the story of the first life.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38The rocks here are covered in 600-million-year old fossils from the same family
0:35:38 > 0:35:41as the one found in Leicestershire where David grew up.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44OK, David, it you could gesture towards this one.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47- We're going to do a pull focus to this one.- That was fantastic.
0:35:47 > 0:35:54You know, I've grown up to believe that that little fossil in the Charnwood Forest that long,
0:35:54 > 0:35:59just one of them, was one of the most precious fossils in the world, and they are walking over them!
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Dozens of them! Well, hundreds of them, literally hundreds of them.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08It's a good place for David to indulge his passion for photography.
0:36:08 > 0:36:13Aren't we right in thinking that the photograph on the front of Life On Earth was one of yours?
0:36:13 > 0:36:16You are absolutely correct, absolutely correct.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21I heard this terrible noise in my ear as I lay on a camp bed...
0:36:21 > 0:36:26Not on a camp bed, I lay on the ground in Panama, like somebody
0:36:26 > 0:36:32hitting an anvil with a mallet and I turned round and there was this... I went click
0:36:32 > 0:36:33and it was a frog
0:36:33 > 0:36:37and it was the front cover of Life On Earth. Look at that.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42You see how this boy's got talent in his fingers, he just doesn't know about!
0:36:42 > 0:36:45THE CREW LAUGH
0:36:45 > 0:36:47What on Earth's that?
0:36:47 > 0:36:51You panicked and pressed the button by accident!
0:36:51 > 0:36:52HE LAUGHS
0:36:57 > 0:37:03Filming moves across Canada to the Rocky Mountains.
0:37:03 > 0:37:10The next location is a remote fossil quarry some 2,000 metres above sea level, and getting there isn't easy.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14David and the crew will need to fly part of the way
0:37:14 > 0:37:18and then hike for half an hour up a steep icy path.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21I'm going to give you a quick safety briefing here on the helicopter.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26This one is done up, it doesn't hang out like that. You put your headset on.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29You don't have to press any buttons to talk, it's just voice-activated.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33I just wish I could remember any of these instructions.
0:37:33 > 0:37:38I mean, it's like with the air hostesses on jets, I can't remember a thing!
0:37:40 > 0:37:43Well, if you look above you, there are some clouds in the sky.
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Those are getting thicker, which means you can't fly,
0:37:47 > 0:37:50so we've got to get up there and see if we can land,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53find the spot for the piece and then get out before it all closes over.
0:37:56 > 0:38:00- The original and best. - Thank you, sir, I do appreciate it.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05- Thank you.- Anybody who bought one of my books deserves to have it signed.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08You can't say that, I'm still here!
0:38:08 > 0:38:10Every day is a highlight for me.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14- Of course it is, Martin, thank you very much.- This one is - the best of far, definitely.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17What was wrong with yesterday?
0:38:17 > 0:38:20- Well, we weren't filming, David. - Oh, yeah, you're quite right.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42David may be an octogenarian, but his determination is just as it ever was.
0:38:42 > 0:38:44We have planned this in so many ways.
0:38:44 > 0:38:48We've discussed having helicopters airlifting him up in a sort of sling underneath.
0:38:48 > 0:38:54We've had the possibility of a sedan chair to come up here, but actually David's perfectly fine
0:38:54 > 0:38:58and perfectly willing, so all our anxieties are evaporating away, really.
0:38:58 > 0:39:00I may be some time.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03The struggle will be worth it.
0:39:03 > 0:39:08Near the summit, David will find one of the richest fossil locations
0:39:08 > 0:39:11in the world, the Burgess Shales.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19Here, they're found all over the place.
0:39:19 > 0:39:25They're called trilobites. That's the head, there's the middle bit.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29'David is so interested in things. He's fascinated by everybody.'
0:39:29 > 0:39:33If there's a table of people, he'll say, "Who is that and what do they do?"
0:39:33 > 0:39:36He's fascinated by that. David reads endlessly.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40I mean, on the plane he read two books coming out from England.
0:39:40 > 0:39:44He absorbs. His study is full of books that he's reading.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47He's up to date with science. He's reading the latest science papers.
0:39:47 > 0:39:53This is a man who, I think, will go on and on because I think he's so fascinated by the world,
0:39:53 > 0:39:55as long as he can walk,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58as long as he can move around, he'll be interacting with it.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05Filming at the top of a mountain is not without hazards, as the weather closes in.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08Unfortunately, the cloud's come down.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10We have got a helicopter here.
0:40:10 > 0:40:11The pilot also wants to go home.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16We wouldn't mind not spending a night on the mountain, so I guess we won't
0:40:16 > 0:40:20be able to stay here for too long, but at the moment the mist is down.
0:40:20 > 0:40:26We're going to have to get into the chopper, sit there ready to go and if it lifts and if you can see the lake
0:40:26 > 0:40:28at the bottom then, with any luck,
0:40:28 > 0:40:34we might put our heads on a pillow tonight in the warmth. Here's hoping!
0:40:35 > 0:40:42There's plenty to keep David busy while he waits for the weather to clear. There are fossils everywhere.
0:40:42 > 0:40:47OK, fellas, he says it's time we left.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54- There you go.- Thanks a lot.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57- No problem, eh?- Really great.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01- How was it, David?- Terrible!
0:41:01 > 0:41:05Do you mind being taken up to these far flung, inhospitable places?
0:41:05 > 0:41:07No, that's why I'm here!
0:41:07 > 0:41:11I don't mind! It's what I came for!
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Back in the Seventies, David's passion for exploring
0:41:15 > 0:41:20far flung places was the catalyst for his resignation from management at the BBC.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24The success of his commissions only served to remind
0:41:24 > 0:41:28the desk-bound Attenborough of the life he was missing.
0:41:28 > 0:41:35I was fretting a bit and concluding that the rest of my life was not to be spent behind a desk.
0:41:35 > 0:41:36I couldn't bear it.
0:41:36 > 0:41:42And so I managed to resign after eight years of administration.
0:41:42 > 0:41:49And the first thing I did on having resigned was the head of the Natural History Unit came to see me and said,
0:41:49 > 0:41:51"Look, don't you think it would be a great idea if
0:41:51 > 0:41:54"we did a 12-part series about the natural world and would you do it?"
0:41:54 > 0:41:56"Oh," I said, "What a good idea!"
0:41:56 > 0:41:58There are some four million
0:41:58 > 0:42:01different kinds of animals and plants in the world,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10This is the story of how a few of them came to be as they are.
0:42:14 > 0:42:21Life on Earth was the series that would define David as the world's greatest natural history presenter.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26It gave him the opportunity to go to the places he'd always dreamed of
0:42:26 > 0:42:30and to see the animals he'd always wanted to see.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32But much more than that,
0:42:32 > 0:42:39it revolutionised the viewers' perspective of the small world in which they lived.
0:42:39 > 0:42:44It was only in the mid-Seventies that you had really such a comprehensive airline service around the world,
0:42:44 > 0:42:47such a reliable airline service around the world, that you could
0:42:47 > 0:42:50go pretty well anywhere, which meant that in the programmes we
0:42:50 > 0:42:56could hop from the Barrier Reef to the Sahara just like that,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58if you wanted to do so, in a shot.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02And then, about 20 or 30 years ago, people realised that they'd been
0:43:02 > 0:43:08looking in the wrong rocks and in the wrong way. These are the right rocks.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11It had a sort of liberating effect that somehow,
0:43:11 > 0:43:16and this was just after the moon shots of course, that somehow
0:43:16 > 0:43:22for the first time we were getting a vision of the natural world, of the globe, of the Earth,
0:43:22 > 0:43:28with the zoosphere, with the animals and plants that clothed it all.
0:43:28 > 0:43:33For the first time you were getting a comprehensive view of that
0:43:33 > 0:43:35and people felt that quite clearly.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38So it seems really very unfair
0:43:38 > 0:43:40that man should have chosen the gorilla
0:43:40 > 0:43:45to symbolise all that is aggressive and violent
0:43:45 > 0:43:50when that's the one thing that the gorilla is not, and that we are.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57The reason we had gone to gorillas was in order to illustrate a point
0:43:57 > 0:44:02I was making about the evolutionary significance of climbing primates, of climbing mammals,
0:44:02 > 0:44:05who had to grasp branches.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07And to grasp a branch you need to be able to
0:44:07 > 0:44:10put your thumb and your forefinger together like that.
0:44:10 > 0:44:17So on the day in question, I crawled off and prepared to go on about the thumb and the forefinger.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22And as I was about to say that I suddenly felt a weight
0:44:22 > 0:44:26on my feet and there was a baby gorilla undoing my shoelaces!
0:44:26 > 0:44:31Well, it didn't seem to be the right moment to be talking about the thumb and forefinger
0:44:31 > 0:44:37and while I was concluding on that, a hand came down on my head and there was the adult female!
0:44:37 > 0:44:43And she opened my mouth, put her hand, a huge great hand
0:44:43 > 0:44:45and stuck a finger in my mouth
0:44:45 > 0:44:48and I couldn't talk about the thumb and forefinger even then!
0:44:48 > 0:44:50By this time I was in a sort of delirium, really.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53I mean, it just seemed paradisal.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55I mean, absolutely extraordinary. Took my breath away.
0:44:55 > 0:45:01It did cause a huge sensation that here is a presenter
0:45:01 > 0:45:06looking at the camera, when suddenly a gorilla comes out of the bush and sits on him!
0:45:06 > 0:45:08I mean, it's quite odd!
0:45:26 > 0:45:32Back in the UK, David is in the back room of Edinburgh's National Museum
0:45:32 > 0:45:36filming a fossil of a huge animal that lived 420 million years ago.
0:45:36 > 0:45:43A deadly sea scorpion, one of the largest predators of its time.
0:45:43 > 0:45:44Gosh!
0:45:44 > 0:45:48Well, this is a magnificent example
0:45:48 > 0:45:55of just how big an animal can grow if it has an external skeleton.
0:45:57 > 0:46:03Yeah, my friend Richard Fortey, he's got a few stories about what goes on in the back rooms of museums!
0:46:03 > 0:46:09Yeah, I mean, they are strange, arcane places.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12I've seen a very old film projector there,
0:46:12 > 0:46:20a Kalee film projector, the like of which must have shown Buster Keaton and things like that I would think.
0:46:20 > 0:46:2435mm. I started filming on 35mm back in the Fifties,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27so I don't feel as astounded at that,
0:46:27 > 0:46:34but I now find that people coming into our business are astonished to see 16mm film.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37"Amazing, film! Good Lord!"
0:46:37 > 0:46:39I mean, you can actually look at it!
0:46:39 > 0:46:40And they're used to videotape.
0:46:40 > 0:46:43So the world changes.
0:46:43 > 0:46:45Yielding place to new.
0:46:45 > 0:46:50And God fulfils himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00We're in Crail in Fife and when I came here on the recce it was
0:47:00 > 0:47:04a beautiful sunny day, fantastically picturesque.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07Mother Nature is a difficult beast to tame
0:47:07 > 0:47:09and I can't do anything about how she's going to be.
0:47:09 > 0:47:11She's obviously in a bad mood today.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13- How do you feel, David?- >
0:47:13 > 0:47:17I just regret I haven't brought my chest wig!
0:47:17 > 0:47:20It's just the sort of weather you need one.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Are you sure you need your blazer?
0:47:22 > 0:47:24It makes you look a little uncomfortable.
0:47:24 > 0:47:28- What?- Are you sure you want your blazer on?- My blazer! It's not a blazer.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33- OK, your jacket from M&S!- M&S!
0:47:33 > 0:47:35M&S!
0:47:38 > 0:47:42- This is rather good, isn't it? - That's a good hat.- I mean, now, be honest.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44No, that's a good hat.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46The scarf's very classy. You can wear the glasses.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49They're meant for these conditions, aren't they? They're titanium.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53They are titanium. Well, the problem is they're better on than off.
0:47:53 > 0:47:58Keep them on until we do the piece, otherwise you might walk in the water or something!
0:47:58 > 0:48:00They haven't got screen wipers, have they?
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Do you like coming to Scotland, apart from the weather?
0:48:15 > 0:48:18I served in the Navy here, hardened up,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21toughened up by life in the Forces up on the Firth of Forth.
0:48:21 > 0:48:23It was like this all the time!
0:48:23 > 0:48:28CREW LAUGH Yeah?
0:48:28 > 0:48:29Action!
0:48:29 > 0:48:34And on the expanses of sand that stretch between those huge trees,
0:48:34 > 0:48:40sand that's now become this sandstone rock, there are tracks.
0:48:44 > 0:48:46Are you RSPB?
0:48:46 > 0:48:50No, we are dissertation. We're from St Andrew's University, so...
0:48:50 > 0:48:52What are you looking for, birds?
0:48:52 > 0:48:56- The redshanks. - Redshanks. How nice.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59Are their numbers doing well?
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Yeah, they're fine.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03Doing well. Yeah.
0:49:03 > 0:49:09Well, you're shanks get pretty red in this weather, I'll tell you!
0:49:09 > 0:49:15It was desperately cold, I must say, and blowing a gale, but kind friends lent me gear.
0:49:15 > 0:49:16Thank you very much, David.
0:49:16 > 0:49:18- No, thank you.- Not at all.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21- Was it your underwear? - No, it wasn't my underwear.
0:49:21 > 0:49:22It was my outerwear.
0:49:22 > 0:49:29Your outerwear. Oh, well, that's not quite so intimate, so I'm not going to thank you quite so intimately.
0:49:29 > 0:49:30No shared bodily warmth!
0:49:34 > 0:49:39David has always been at the forefront of new filming technologies.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44His programmes have pioneered miniature cameras, infrared,
0:49:44 > 0:49:49super slow-motion, time-lapse and aerial photography.
0:49:49 > 0:49:55The arrival of colour brought a huge advance as far as making natural history programmes were concerned.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58You could now show the splendour of bird displays.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02You could talk about how insects would see different colours in different plants
0:50:02 > 0:50:04and you could see what you were talking about.
0:50:04 > 0:50:11The next big change, I suppose, was the arrival of hypersensitive cameras and infrared cameras.
0:50:11 > 0:50:17We maintained a fiction that really lions were idle creatures
0:50:17 > 0:50:21that spent most of the time lying around in the sunshine and just occasionally hunted.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25The truth of course is quite different and that was lions are lying around
0:50:25 > 0:50:28during the day because they hunted during the night.
0:50:28 > 0:50:33But with hypersensitive cameras we were able to show that for the first time.
0:50:33 > 0:50:39Then sensitive cameras enabled you to put the film through the camera at a much greater speed which meant that,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42in effect, you could slow things down,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46so that changed, so you could show how animals ran, for example.
0:50:46 > 0:50:52On top of that, the next change came the other way round, in that by use of computers and so on,
0:50:52 > 0:51:00we could slow down the speed at which the frames passed through the camera and at the same time move the camera
0:51:00 > 0:51:07and get pictures of, for example, a speeded up activity when you showed it of plants developing.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09That produced a great change.
0:51:12 > 0:51:17And then suddenly, computer-generated imaging came along
0:51:17 > 0:51:23and to an improved degree, instead of the rather crude and clumsy things that had been seen in the past.
0:51:24 > 0:51:28Making First Life, David is at the cutting edge once again
0:51:28 > 0:51:31as palaeontology and technology join forces
0:51:31 > 0:51:38to bring the earliest animals on Earth back to life for the first time in half a billion years.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40OK, David, here's the head of the unit.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43Seeing these animals living and breathing
0:51:43 > 0:51:47is something David has dreamt of since he was a boy.
0:51:47 > 0:51:48Oh, that's terrific!
0:51:48 > 0:51:51My old friend, anomalocaris!
0:51:51 > 0:51:54Like you've never seen it before.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Hi! Oh, it's terrific!
0:51:57 > 0:52:00The really thrilling thing for me
0:52:00 > 0:52:05is that by using a computer graphic and imaging,
0:52:05 > 0:52:10you can take these tiny little marks and with total justification,
0:52:10 > 0:52:16scientific backing, you can make that animal really come to life, come out of the rock and move.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18That's knock out stuff, you know?
0:52:18 > 0:52:20I mean, that is knock out, isn't it?
0:52:20 > 0:52:24Look at that! How could you not believe in that?
0:52:24 > 0:52:27Just thrilling, actually.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29Just thrilling.
0:52:29 > 0:52:34I've been given this model and I put some bones inside of it.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36There weren't any bones!
0:52:36 > 0:52:40- It's just the...- But for your point you've got to have bones.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43Yeah, it's the only way the computer can understand what to move where.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45I was going to say, next time you go for a lobster supper...!
0:52:45 > 0:52:48Now I know perfectly well
0:52:48 > 0:52:51that you can see a shot of,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55say, a shrimp and a coral reef and another one rather different shrimp
0:52:55 > 0:53:00comes round the corner and you are very hard put to know which is the real one.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04- Once you've finished this stage you can make it do anything. - Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08- You can make it go right, left and upside down.- Exactly, yeah, yeah.
0:53:08 > 0:53:09- And just direct it.- Yeah.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12It sounds like a television presenter, really!
0:53:17 > 0:53:22It's pretty exciting looking at a piece of rock, turning it over and seeing the image of an animal
0:53:22 > 0:53:27there, but to see that come to life in this vivid, vivid way
0:53:27 > 0:53:31is more than you can possibly hope for, really.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39It actually helps the scientist, too, because when you see the thing
0:53:39 > 0:53:43you suddenly realise that certain things are possible.
0:53:43 > 0:53:47You realise that it couldn't possibly have done that, it must have done the other.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01David is on his way to the Great Barrier Reef.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05He's going to a remote island 50 miles off the coast of Australia
0:54:05 > 0:54:08where he'll be filming the most primitive animals there are.
0:54:08 > 0:54:10How nice.
0:54:10 > 0:54:15The comfiest seat in the house! If you hold it to the left it'll give you up to 30 degrees.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20And they tell me you're going out to do a documentary on sponges.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24On sponges. Well, we're not doing an entire documentary on sponges.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29That could be a bit of a... You know? Because sponges don't do a lot!
0:54:33 > 0:54:40Sponges are just clumps of simple animal cells that have stuck together.
0:54:40 > 0:54:46It's at this point that the basic patterns of animal form are established.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Animals developed legs
0:54:48 > 0:54:53and arms and television shows! CREW LAUGH
0:54:57 > 0:55:02There's another very important sequence to film on the Great Barrier Reef.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Three miles from Heron Island there's a vast sandbar.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10It's to be used for the opening scene in First Life.
0:55:10 > 0:55:11But to get the shot,
0:55:11 > 0:55:18David must be left on the sandbar alone in 40 degree heat with no shade.
0:55:18 > 0:55:20The team must work fast.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24Within hours the tide will come in flooding the sandbar
0:55:24 > 0:55:26and stranding David.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30It's no mean feat for a man in his eighties.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35Am I prepared? I've got all kinds of electronic gear up by backside!
0:55:48 > 0:55:52I'm on a fantastic journey to look for the origins of life.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59David seems to have this unbelievable amount of energy.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02I don't think I'll have anything like the energy that he has when I'm 83.
0:56:05 > 0:56:09In a way, one of the things that drives David on on these things,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11long after most people would have retired,
0:56:11 > 0:56:16is not just the quest for more things, which, of course, will always drive someone who's
0:56:16 > 0:56:19interested in the natural world, but also he actually enjoys getting back
0:56:19 > 0:56:25with a team of people like the old times on some of his great series, and having that fun and drinking
0:56:25 > 0:56:29the occasional bottle of red wine and being in these amazing places.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32I don't think David is ever...
0:56:32 > 0:56:37I mean, I can't imagine him ever retiring.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42I have to confess, I'm fascinated by armadillos.
0:56:42 > 0:56:47As far as I'm concerned, they are some of the nicest and most curious animals in the world.
0:56:47 > 0:56:53I'm standing on the brink of one of the most densely populated parts of the sea.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56I am on the edge of a coral reef at low tide.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59And top of the menu right now is salmon!
0:57:02 > 0:57:05This programme means a lot to me, actually.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09And, rather surprisingly, I didn't realise how much it meant to me
0:57:09 > 0:57:10until I started doing it,
0:57:10 > 0:57:15because I have spent over the last 25, 30 years
0:57:15 > 0:57:19making a series of programmes about different groups of animals
0:57:19 > 0:57:21as they have emerged through evolution
0:57:21 > 0:57:25and I've never made anything about the very beginning of life.
0:57:25 > 0:57:31Doing this programme not only makes a lovely programme to make that whole series correct
0:57:31 > 0:57:36and complete, but, happily, takes me to the places to see where they are.
0:57:36 > 0:57:43And it's actually very moving, really, you know, to see suddenly a magnificent sheet of fossils,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46innumerable, complex fossils
0:57:46 > 0:57:54which were alive right at the very beginning of life on this planet 500 million years ago.
0:57:54 > 0:57:57So this series, to a degree, which are really didn't fully appreciate
0:57:57 > 0:58:02until I started working on it, really completes the set.
0:58:02 > 0:58:08Some creatures managed to crawl up onto the land.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13But all of us alive today owe our very existence to them.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16Well, in a curious way, in the end,
0:58:16 > 0:58:21the end of my last sort of making series like this, is my beginning.
0:58:33 > 0:58:36Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:36 > 0:58:39E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk