What more do you want?”Natural history is also a wonderful way of seeing the more inhospitable corners of the globe without having to leave your armchair. “The British climate is very beneficent,” Attenborough reckons “It’s not seen by most of us as hostile Even if you live in Italy, nature can be very hostile. “When I first started, there was no one else doing it,” he shrugs. “I’ve now been doing it for so long, I’ve acquired a reputation.

In some senses I’m a dinosaur.”He has presented natural history programmes for the BBC since 1952. He is the BBC’s in-house Midas; everything he touches turns to ratings gold.As you might expect, he is typically unassuming about all this He tries to brush off his status as a national institution. The BBC’s biggest-selling programme ever, which has been taken by 82 countries, is his Living Planet. Meanwhile, Life on Earth, his first blockbuster (or “blue-chip series” in BBC-speak), has been seen by an estimated 500 million viewers worldwide. In his timelessly unfashionable safari suits, he has done more than anyone else to bring, say, a termite’s nest into our living rooms and demonstrate why it is uniquely magical.

We trust him to take us on epic journeys without frightening the horses (or your granny). One of only a handful of stars beyond sniping, he is up there with Michael Palin as an unquestioned television treasure. His appeal is so broad that he is one person both your parents and your children have heard of.It’s not just we Brits who love him, either. The Corporation knows it wouldn’t be worth even thinking about Middle England would revolt. Only the axing of The Archers could cause a comparable furore.
The Natural History Unit reaches its 40th birthday this autumn, which it is celebrating with two major new series, The Animal Zone, and The Wildlife Specials. The individual most responsible for giving the Natural History Unit this untouchable status is, of course, Sir David Attenborough.

The BBC’s Natural History Unit is in the mood for celebration. Not only is it 40 years young; it also stands alone in having avoided the Birtist axe. Sir David Attenborough, now 71, is the man most closely associated with the unit’s success

In all its rounds of Birtist “restructurings”, the BBC has never once suggested a cut in funding for its Natural History Unit. It’s an ambitious and, for the most part, well selected show which takes in most of this century’s major figures and includes a good number of modern masterpieces.
Their selection starts, chronologically, in 1890 with Cezanne’s Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants (the first of several clues that the exhibition was generated in America) so there’s no Van Gogh or Gauguin.