->''"Our planet, the Earth, is, as far as we know, unique, in the Universe - it contains life."''
-->--'''David Attenborough''', ''The Living Planet''

''[[DescribeTopicHere And here we see the common troper in its natural habitat, describing a trope.]]''

Sir David Frederick Attenborough (born May 8, 1926) is a British broadcaster and naturalist, famous as a nature documentary producer and narrator, long fondly stereotyped and much mimicked for his hushed yet enthusiastic delivery and ability to find ''any'' sort of plant or animal interesting. He is one of the most enduring presences on UK television in a career spanning 60+ years, as well as a former controller of the channel [[Creator/TheBBC BBC2]]. To many people he has long been THE face and voice of natural history, having created many of the most notable television series on the natural world - especially those in the "Life" sequence beginning with 1974's ''Life on Earth'' and continued with ''The Living Planet'', ''The Trials of Life'', ''Life in the Freezer'', ''The Private Life of Plants'', ''The Life of Birds'' and ''...of Mammals'', ''Life in the Undergrowth'', ''LifeInColdBlood'', and ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8AdMRWOBX4&feature=related Charles Darwin - The Tree Of Life]]''; he has also narrated many other major series such as ''The Blue Planet'', ''Planet Earth'', and ''Life''. He has been credited as being the most-traveled man on Earth. Recently voted the "most trusted public figure" in UK media.

Incidentally, he has been credited with popularizing colour TV in the UK by commissioning the snooker program ''Pot Black'' as head of BBC Two (as you need a coloured TV set to see the different coloured pool balls). He was also responsible for televising {{Wimbledon}} in colour because it was a cheap way to fill airtime with the limited number of cameras available in the late sixties.

While controller of [=BBC2=] he commissioned a number of landmark documentary series, including Sir Kenneth Clark's ''Civilisation'', Alistair Cooke's ''America'' and Jacob Bronowski's ''The Ascent of Man''. Ironically, it was not until some years later that he was persuaded to apply the format to natural history with ''Life on Earth''.

Younger brother of the late actor and director (Lord) Richard Attenborough. [[http://www.flyingmonsters3dmovie.com/ He also made one of the first documentaries on pterosaurs.]]

He ended at #63 in ''Series/OneHundredGreatestBritons''.
!!Tropes related to David Attenborough:

* AffectionateParody: Has been the subject of a good deal of them.
* ApocalypticLog: The "On Location" bonus in the reptiles and amphibians episode of ''Life'', which depicts the crew filming a slowly dying water buffalo being stalked by a hungry Komodo dragon, has shades of this.
* ChasedByAngryNatives: Their fearsome display turned out to be their traditional greeting.
* CoolOldGuy
* CozyVoiceForCatastrophes: He's right up there with Creator/StephenFry and Creator/MorganFreeman in terms of having an incredibly soft and calming voice.
* TheDeterminator: Born in 1926, and still making documentaries.
** Even more so since the late nineties when his wife died. He likes to keep himself busy.
* {{Documentary}}: This appears to be the only thing he makes.
* DoingItForTheArt: Having turned down a high-profile job at the BBC to continue making documentaries.
* {{Filler}}: In an older documentary series for the London Zoo he was supposed to be searching for an African bird for a week but had actually found it on the second day.
* FriendToAllLivingThings: Particularly birds,[[http://youtu.be/_xSj5XcByuA except maybe the capercaillie]]
* GreenAesop: He often delivers one of these at the end of each series, and is in fact noted for his endorsement of conservation efforts. He has taken part in at least two documentaries specifically about global warming (''State of the Planet'' and ''Are We Changing Planet Earth?'').
* [[ShesAManInJapan He's A Woman In America]]: ''Planet Earth'' and ''Life'' are narrated by Creator/SigourneyWeaver and [[TheOprahWinfreyShow Oprah Winfrey]], respectively, to [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks the fury]] of fans (don't worry, the non-DiscoveryChannel [=DVDs=] keep Attenborough's narration). The Frozen Planet series replaced him with Alec Baldwin when Discovery broadcast it.
* ImperturbableEnglishman: Very deadpan when it comes to accidents on set. Also once confronted a tribe of cannibals charging at the crew with a handshake and a "how do you do?"
* IsThisThingStillOn: Forgetting he had a mike while climbing a particularly tall tree, resulting in the crew hearing his panicked swearing and singing as he made his way up.
* LimitedWardrobe: Always wears the same light blue shirt and khaki chino trousers to keep people focused on whatever he's observing instead of on him, and also allows for editing between shots to look more smooth without violating a sense of continuity. Averted in the Antarctic, where he was required to wear a different colour-coded outfit in each territory he visited.
* MajoredInWesternHypocrisy: Met a few who did on his travels.
* MickeyMousing: Almost all of the soundtrack to ''Life on Earth'' punctuates the actions of animals on screen.
* OffscreenTeleportation: He wears identical sets of clothes on-camera while filming a series over anything up to three years, with the result that it looks like he's just walked straight from Brazil to India. Referenced and parodied by satirists. David says he does this because he doesn't want viewers wondering why his clothes have changed and if there is some point or message in the new shirt colour, since that would distract from whatever he's showing on screen.
** Combines with TimeTravel in ''Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life'' due to using footage from an earlier Darwin documentary that was made in the sixties or seventies.
* RedshirtReporter: Qualifies as this once or twice. For instance, during ''Life in the Freezer'', he gets a little too close to a bull elephant seal, and the seal evidently doesn't like his company. When Attenborough explains that the seals must fight to defend their patches of beach, the seal turns around and lunges at him.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Refused to climb up the BBC promotion chain, because he loved making documentaries so much.
* ScienceMarchesOn: In ''The Life of Birds'', he cites ''Confuciusornis'' as evidence that teeth were lost early in bird evolution. However, it now appears that confuciusornithids lost their teeth independently of the radiation leading to modern birds, as enantiornithines, hesperornithines and ''Ichthyornis'' (all of which are more closely related to modern birds than confuciusornithids are) retained their teeth.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Although he talks to them, how much communication is happening is debatable. Although they generally seem amazingly comfortable with him.
* TemptingFate: Making a comment about the ability of bats to navigate without hitting objects in the dark, right before a bat flew into his face.
** This may be due to the fact that bats mostly use echolocation for hunting and Attenborough being in their commuting corridors would be just as surprised to the bat as to him
* {{Understatement}}: "But then again, living on an active volcano is not without its risks..." (from ''The Blue Planet'').
* [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes Why Did It Have To Be Rats?]]: Not a fan of them, particularly when one jumped out from a toilet he was using.