NATURE to Celebrate David Attenborough with Miniseries ATTENBOROUGH'S LIFE STORIES, Beg. 1/23

Sir David Attenborough was eight years old in 1934 when he saw his first natural history film. It featured the popular naturalist Cherry Kearton, one of the earliest pioneers of wildlife photography and filmmaking. "Kearton's films captured my childish imagination," says Attenborough. "It made me dream of traveling to far off places to film wild animals."

Years later, those dreams became an illustrious reality. For over half a century, Attenborough has been at the forefront of natural history filmmaking, witnessing an unparalleled period of change in our planet's history. His first-hand accounts offer a unique perspective on the natural world.

As he marks his 60th anniversary on television, Nature presents Attenborough's Life Stories, a three-part retrospective of his life and work, airing on consecutive Wednesdays, January 23, 30, and February 6, 2013 at 8 pm (ET) on PBS (check local listings). The mini-series focuses on three areas that he believes have been transformed most profoundly during his time: filmmaking, science, and the environment. After the broadcast, each episode will stream at pbs.org/nature.

Nature is a production of THIRTEEN in association with WNET for PBS. WNET is the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21, New York's public television stations and operator of NJTV. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

With distinctive eloquence and enthusiasm for his subject, Attenborough is our incomparable guide in a lifelong journey through the natural world. How do you trap a Komodo dragon? Can a lion take down an elephant? Why are animals distributed in the way they are around the world? How do animals communicate with one another? What is climate change? How can the health of the planet be insured?

Attenborough answers these questions and more, recounting with wit and humor all the wonders of the natural world he has been able to share with his viewers - wonders sometimes never before seen on television. The 86-year old veteran of wildlife filmmaking returns to key locations that played a part in his remarkable body of work, shares old photos, anecdotes and rare footage from the early days in his television career. Informed by a lifetime devoted to understanding and documenting the natural world, Attenborough also shares with viewers his unique personal reflections about nature and the earth.

Episode one: Attenborough's Life Stories: Life on Camera

Attenborough revisits key places and events in his career and shows how a succession of technical innovations in filmmaking led to remarkable revelations about our planet and the creatures that inhabit it. The introduction of video cameras in underwater photography was a huge breakthrough in extending the time cameramen have to capture the most dramatic shots of animal behavior, such as swimming with dolphins and marlin hunting, without artificial lights.

Returning to his old haunts in Borneo, Attenborough recalls the challenges of filming on a seething pile of guano in a bat cave, especially when the lights went out, and how to catch a komodo dragon. He also shows how the invention of infrared film cameras made it possible to film one of the most amazing nocturnal hunting sequences ever recorded and proved that a pride of lions can kill an animal as big as an elephant.

Other innovations include the stabilizing camera mount, remote controlled camera, time lapse photography, and digital slow motion cameras. The latter, recording what is impossible to see with the naked eye, caught one of Attenborough's favorite moments: tricking a lovesick hoverfly into thinking that the objects Attenborough was shooting out of a peashooter were females whizzing by.

Episode two: Attenborough's Life Stories: Understanding the Natural World

Attenborough shares his memories of the scientists and the breakthroughs that helped shape his own career in translating these discoveries into film. Attenborough is seen interviewing Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz who studied animal behavior and geese in particular. Lorenz determined that if he was the first thing young goslings saw when they hatched, they would follow him as they would a parent. This process, known as imprinting, was a boon to filmmakers who could film animals behaving naturally in the wild.

Demonstrating some of the thrilling attempts to bring new science to a television audience, Attenborough is seen standing in the shadow of an erupting volcano as lumps of hot lava crashes around him. He's describing how continental drift, caused by volcanic eruptions on the sea bottom, explains why a closely related group of animals can occur on both sides of an ocean.

Following up on his boyhood fascination with a book illustration showing a bird of paradise being hunted by native tribes, Attenborough ventures to New Guinea in search of the elusive bird and is charged by a group of armed tribesmen until he offers a handshake signaling his peaceful intent. Eventually his cameraman filmed a plumed male and unplumed female, possibly the first film ever taken of a bird of paradise displaying in the wild, but Attenborough returned 40 years later with better cameras and the ability to shoot high up in the trees. Among other topics featured are DNA fingerprinting, chimpanzee behavior and Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.

Episode three: Attenborough's Life Stories: Our Fragile Planet

Attenborough reflects on the dramatic impact that we have had on the natural world during his lifetime, such as the disappearing rain forests and coral reefs, endangered species such as the blue whale, manatees, sea otters, chimpanzees, and orangutans. He notes how the vulnerable Panamanian golden frog is now quarantined for safety so it doesn't succumb to a highly infectious fungus which has already made the Monteverde Toad from Costa Rica extinct.

He tells surprising, entertaining and deeply personal stories of the changes he has seen, from his early travels with the London Zoo collecting animals; showing viewers the world's rarest living animal, the giant Galapagos tortoise, Lonesome George; to covering the work of Dian Fossey, whose life's mission to study and protect the endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda inspired him to become a conservationist.

But Attenborough also reviews the revolution in attitudes towards nature that has taken place around the globe. He cites the creation in 1961 of the World Wildlife Fund, the first international organization to spend money on conservation projects around the globe, and protections put into place in Borneo and Malaysia to protect birds and turtles.

He concludes with a warning about the consequences of sea ice melt: exposing the dark sea water that doesn't reflect the sun's heat to keep earth cool. Unlike ice and snow, it absorbs the sun's heat, raising the sea temperature and its level. Climate change, he says, is already affecting the lives of not only wild animals, but ourselves.

Attenborough's Life Stories is a co-production of THIRTEEN and BBC in association with WNET. Alastair Fothergill is executive producer. David Attenborough is presenter. For Nature, FrEd Kaufman is executive producer.

Nature pioneered a television genre that is now widely emulated in the broadcast industry. Throughout its history, Nature has brought the natural world to millions of viewers. The series has been consistently among the most-watched primetime series on public television.
Nature has won almost 700 honors from the television industry, the international wildlife film communities, and environmental organizations, including 11 Emmys, three Peabodys and the first award given to a television program by the Sierra Club. The series received two of the wildlife film industry's highest honors: the Christopher Parsons Outstanding Achievement Award given by the Wildscreen Festival and the Grand Teton Award given by the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Recently, Nature's executive producer, FrEd Kaufman, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Media by the 2012 International Wildlife Film Festival
PBS.org/nature is the award-winning web companion to Nature featuring streaming episodes, filmmaker interviews, teacher's guides, and more.

Major corporate support for the original public television broadcast of this Nature program was provided by Canon U.S.A., Inc. Additional support was provided by the Arnhold Family in honor of Clarisse Arnhold, the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, the Filomen M. D'Agostino Foundation, Susan Malloy and the Sun Hill Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by the nation's public television stations.

In 2013, WNET is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of THIRTEEN, New York's flagship public media provider. As the parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21 and operator of NJTV, WNET brings quality arts, education and public affairs programming to over 5 million viewers each week. WNET produces and presents such acclaimed PBS series as Nature, Great Performances, American Masters, Need to Know, Charlie Rose and a range of documentaries, children's programs, and local news and cultural offerings available on air and online. Pioneers in educational programming, WNET has created such groundbreaking series as Get the Math, Oh Noah!and Cyberchaseand provides tools for educators that bring compelling content to life in the classroom and at home. WNET highlights the tri-state's unique culture and diverse communities through NYC-ARTS, Reel 13, NJ Todayand MetroFocus, the multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region.

Photo © Adam Scott 2011

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