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Sir David ...what are we going to do without him? (1 Viewer)

teamsaint said:
Attenborough is a true legend, but every time I see him on the telly he looks older and older.................. .

He is 80 after all. Hope I last that long and am as active and have my faculties in the same shape. ;)
 
Please not Charlotte or Saba - can't abide either of them. Or Bill Oddie, or Alan Titchmarsh, or Kate Humble. I'd rather have Jeremy as well....

I think Feargal Keane was good in Andes to Amazon as he wasn't intrusive. The bloke from 'Land of the Tiger' was called Valmik Thapar and he was really good, enthusiastic and appeared knowledgable.
 
Kiki said:
Please not Charlotte or Saba - can't abide either of them. Or Bill Oddie, or Alan Titchmarsh, or Kate Humble. I'd rather have Jeremy as well....

I think Feargal Keane was good in Andes to Amazon as he wasn't intrusive. The bloke from 'Land of the Tiger' was called Valmik Thapar and he was really good, enthusiastic and appeared knowledgable.


Don't think I could quite cope with Clarkson but mention of Jermey made me think of Paxman - reckon he could handle it!

Nick Baker would be right up there as a male choice for me though. His weird creatures series is a hoot.

John
 
I think someone's said already that he will be impossible to replace. The only thing to do is move on.

Some have the knowledge, but not the look. Some have it the other way around. Others have both, but they just aren't right.

The BBC will continue to use the presenters they have on their own merits because they know what can be expected of them and know how they'll be received - they're proven, and proven is safe. In time, a presenter will stand out. Maybe it will be one of the current knowns, but it's more likely to be someone new. The BBC won't decide this, the public will (I don't mean by phoning/texting!). Isn't that what happened with David?
 
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Apparently Attenborough himself has suggested Charlotte Uhlenbroek as his successor.
He always seems to me to have two great skills (both notable by their absence in most current TV presenters):
1. He knows what he's talkng about (or if he doesn't he asks people who do)
2. He knows when to shut up - knows when the pictures are doing all the talking & need nothing more.
...which add up to another quality seldom in evidence elsewhere in the media today: humility.

Incidentally, has anyone else heard this story? That 'D Attenborough' was nominated for a peerage years ago. One of the old duffers who decide these things saw the name & said 'Ah! Dickie! Splendid choice!'... which is why we have Lord Richard but only Sir David!
 
pcurpb said:
things saw the name & said 'Ah! Dickie! Splendid choice!'... which is why we have Lord Richard but only Sir David!

No joke that's true, got to be surely! Another vote for Jeremy Clarkson, I reckon lot of what he says is just devils advocate. Deep down he's a left wing tree hugger, well maybe that's going a bit too far.
 
Steven Astley said:
Bill Oddie knows more about birds than David Attenborough.

I don't think he does. Oddie is a birdwatcher and a lapsed twitcher. he knows how to identify a lesser grey shrike or a richard's pipit, yes. But he has no real idea about biology or zoology, except what he picks up from British Birds about taxonomic splits. The BBC series are not identification programs for birders, they are essentially science shows, especially Attenborough's early ones, which were heavy on the biology and the interpretation of the images. They fulfilled the Reithian ethos of educating and informing. Oddie is essentially a layman too, and his shows are about enjoying the sights of nature, and the wonder of it, not trying to interpret what's actually going on. He is one of Reith's 'entertainers', not informers. When he tries to inform, as on Springwatch, he clearly shows that he hasn't really got a clue. Therefore his postulating about e.g. why Spotted Flycatchers are declining or why the mother blue tit feeds her chicks sunflower seeds and places the same seed in each mouth, is usually way off the mark. Attenborough would at least have a better grasp of such issues, or at least have the nous to know where the answers would be found, and so not have a blind stab at it like Oddie does.

It's like asking a plane-spotter to fly you to Tenerife, on the basis that they must know about planes.
 
Poecile said:
I've had a few conversations about tbis. If they want a 'new attenborough', long term, rather than a jobbing presetner, then it has to be someone with an academic background like Attenborough's,
QUOTE]

Where do you get that information from? He's been a TV presenter since 1952. Therefore I suggest he has never been an academic;-) Maybe has a degree but not absolutely certain about that either;-)

CRF
 
crfishwick said:
Maybe has a degree but not absolutely certain about that either;-)

I believe he has a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge, but no postgraduate academic work, so I guess it depends on your definition of an academic
 
Capercaillie71 said:
I believe he has a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge, but no postgraduate academic work, so I guess it depends on your definition of an academic
There's a whole other argument here about what constitutes academic work. As an academic myself, I'd say that Nat. Science from Cambridge in the 1940s would certainly count as academic. He also did Anthropology at UCL, but not sure at what level.
 
Let's not lose sight of the fact that Sir David himself always alludes to the fact that he comes to Natural History primarily as a JOURNALIST - and it is his natural inquisitiveness which makes the programmes work so brilliantly - almost as though he, himself is finding things out for the first time.
No pro. Natural history tw*ts please - and a speach defect is only appealing when it's a three year old child. Simon King has been practicing whispering since he was ten and he still can't do it.
No - what's really needed is someone with intelligence, who can investigate and communicate ideas in a succinct and entertaining manner.
Gene Simmons - bass player with Kiss. Let him write it too, and you'll get a show!
 
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