David Attenborough lands epic new BBC show just days before his 99th birthday

The Sun

06-05-2025

DAVID Attenborough has landed an epic new BBC show just days before his 99th birthday.
The national treasure who turns 99 this week has already recorded his scripts for the brand new natural history series.
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Sir David, whose career spans eight decades will returning to BBC One this summer for another landmark natural history series, titled Parenthood.
The five-part series will showcase how parenthood in the animal kingdom is a high stakes game in which some animal parents must come up with extraordinary strategies to give their young a head start.
The synopsis reads: "From Orcas teaching their offspring to hunt Blue Whales to Hippo families navigating the terrifying African night.
"Parenthood is an adventure and just like us, animal parents can be caring, patient, dedicated, short-tempered and foolish.
"Elephant mothers will dedicate themselves to showing their calves where to find water.
"Cardinalfish fathers endure housing their fry inside their own mouths, whilst a lion pride adopts the cubs of a recently killed matriarch and raise them to become giant hunters."
BBC specialist factual commissioning boss Jack Bootle told The Mirror that Sir David has already recorded his carefully-worded scripts for all five episodes.
"This is a wonderful, warm, engaging and surprising series, made by some of the very best wildlife filmmakers in the world, and I'm thrilled Sir David is joining us again to narrate it,' he said.
Series producer and director, Jeff Wilson, speaking of the series said: 'The ultimate celebration of the joys and challenges of raising offspring in the natural world'.
He added: 'Silverback Films did a deep dive into the subject over 2.5 years, uncovering extraordinary new behaviours and jaw-dropping dramas using the world's best wildlife cinematographers and directors.
'We are incredibly proud that Sir David was on board with us to bring to the screen a landmark series that has something for everyone.
"Moments of heart warming tenderness, high stakes narrative , and a timely guide from a huge cast of unbelievably engaging cast of characters on how to navigate the complex world of Parenthood.'
Meanwhile, Sir David, has sadly stated that he is: 'nearing the end of his life.'
He makes the admission in his new show, Ocean, in which he looks at how important aquatic life is to our planet.
The feature length film sees him on a shoreline looking out to sea in what is widely expected to be his last location shoot for a TV show.
A TV insider said: 'They're two major moments but despite being associated with the BBC for most of his working life, they both feature in the documentary which is set to drop on Disney+.'
In the documentary, which airs on the streaming giant next month he is seen saying: 'When I first saw the sea as a young boy, it was thought of as a vast wilderness to be tamed and mastered for the benefit of humanity.
'Now, as I approach the end of my life, we know the opposite is true.
'After living for nearly a hundred years on this planet, I now understand that the most important place on Earth is not on land, but at sea.'
The film shows Attenborough looking back at footage from 1957 of his first attempt at scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.
Although he says we are 'almost out of time', Attenborough remains optimistic.
He tells how creating protected marine reserves where fishing is banned allows the ocean's eco-system to recover.