Editing David Attenborough (section)

=== ''Life'' series ===
{{see also|The Life Collection}}
Beginning with ''[[Life on Earth (TV series)|Life on Earth]]'' in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching the latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of scientists, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes.<ref>{{cite book |author=Attenborough, David |title=Life on Air |publisher=BBC Books |year=2002 |isbn=0-563-48780-1 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeonair00atte}} pp. 289–291.</ref>

Innovation was another factor in ''Life on Earth''{{'s}} success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were up till then unfilmed. International air travel enabled the series to be devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one sequence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he restricted his time on camera to give more time to his subjects.<ref>{{Cite AV media |people=Miles Barton (director), David Attenborough (presenter), Alastair Fothergill (executive producer) |title=Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild, Episode 1, Life on Camera |year=2012 |publisher=BBC |format=documentary |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zsqsz |access-date=3 September 2021 |archive-date=16 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616165057/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zsqsz |url-status=live }}</ref>

Five years after the success of ''Life on Earth'', the BBC released ''[[The Living Planet]]''.{{Sfn|Gouyon|2019|p=233}} This time, Attenborough built his series around the theme of ecology, the adaptations of living things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, ''[[The Trials of Life]]'' completed the original Life trilogy, looking at [[ethology|animal behaviour]] through the different stages of life.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/october/trials-of-life |title=The Trials of Life |access-date=5 September 2021 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417084551/https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/october/trials-of-life |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" title for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented ''[[Life in the Freezer]]'', the first television series to survey the natural history of [[Antarctica]]. Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result was ''[[The Private Life of Plants]]'' (1995), which showed plants as dynamic organisms by using [[time-lapse photography]] to speed up their growth, and went on to earn a [[Peabody Award]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-private-life-of-plants |title=Peabody Award Citation: The Private Life of Plants (1995) |access-date=24 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826234123/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-private-life-of-plants |archive-date=26 August 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Prompted by an enthusiastic [[ornithology|ornithologist]] at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to birds. As he was neither a [[Birdwatching|birdwatcher]] nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to make ''[[The Life of Birds]]'' (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The documentary series won a second Peabody Award the following year.<ref>[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-life-of-birds-by-david-attenborough 59th Annual Peabody Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006131052/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-life-of-birds-by-david-attenborough |date=6 October 2014 }}, May 2000.</ref> The order of the remaining "Life" series was dictated by developments in camera technology. For ''[[The Life of Mammals]]'' (2002), [[low-light photography|low-light]] and [[infrared photography|infrared]] cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorable [[two shot]]s of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a [[blue whale]] and a [[grizzly bear]]. Advances in [[macro photography]] made it possible to capture the natural behaviour of very small creatures for the first time, and in 2005, ''[[Life in the Undergrowth]]'' introduced audiences to the world of [[invertebrate]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BBC Science & Nature – Life In The Undergrowth |publisher=BBC |access-date=6 September 2021 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeintheundergrowth/ |archive-date=4 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210804004715/http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/lifeintheundergrowth/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles and [[amphibian]]s were missing. When ''[[Life in Cold Blood]]'' was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing the set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia called ''[[Life on Land]]''. He commented: "The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said 'Don't be ridiculous!' These programmes tell a particular story and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did, but I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years' time, it will still have something to say about the world we live in."<ref name="rtimes2">''Radio Times'' 26 Jan–1 February 2008: "The Last Word", interview with Jeremy Paxman</ref>

However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his ''[[First Life (TV series)|First Life]]'' – dealing with evolutionary history before ''Life on Earth'' – should be included within the "Life" series. In the documentary ''[[Attenborough's Journey]]'', he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set."<ref>''Attenborough's Journey'', BBC Two, 24 October 2010</ref>