PBS's 'Nature' Turns the Camera on "Attenborough's Life Journey"

Few are left of those who pioneered television as we know it today, and those who are still with us will not be around for much longer. However, it speaks to the original dream for the medium as a way to provide educational and heartwarming television that two of the eldest, Dick Van Dyke and David Attenborough, are PBS legends. Both are 98 this year, and both (somehow) are still going, with Van Dyke taking home his second-ever Daytime Emmy in 2024 and Attenborough's next series, Asia, arriving stateside in 2025. However, while Van Dyke has had lots of specials about his life, Attenborough not so much, which is why Nature has finally turned the camera around and made him their next subject.

“For over 40 years, Sir David Attenborough took us by the hand and walked us through the natural world with an ease and grace that we will probably never see again,” said Fred Kaufman, Executive Producer for Nature, when explaining why the series decided to document the foremost nature documentarian. “There will never be another Attenborough, and Nature is fortunate to have worked with him on so many iconic films and series.”

Attenborough started his TV career in 1954 as host of the BBC's original Nature program, Zoo Quest, but the 1979 landmark special Life on Earth turned him into a household name on both sides of the pond. The new Nature special will begin with what led Attenborough to Zoo Quest in the first place and how it took him around the world before putting him into nearly every living room on his beloved planet.