Nature's voice Attenborough to retire

Monday Feb 5 20:36 AEDT
Sir David Attenborough, the voice of the television nature documentary, has announced he is retiring. A sequel to the highly successful BBC series Planet Earth is being planned, but Sir David has indicated he will not narrate the new show, called Life.

"If I go to a network controller and say that I want to make a three-year series, then they'll rightly be concerned about their investment," Sir David, who will be 83 when Life is screened in 2009, told Britain's Times newspaper. "They'd say, 'It's lovely to hear from you, but are you sure you'll be standing by the end?'"

Sir David joined the BBC as a Cambridge natural sciences graduate in 1952.

He intends to retire after completing his latest series, called Life in Cold Blood, about reptiles and amphibians, which he said would complete my survey of all the major animal groups.

Possible successors include Bill Oddie, the co-creator of the 1970s and 80s comedy series, The Goodies, who has become an accomplished television presenter with his own documentaries focusing on birds. Sir David said he had also been impressed by the work of zoologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek. Alastair Fothergill, Sir David's collaborator in the BBC's Natural History Unit, is the insiders' tip, according to The Times. Fothergill caused a stir in Australia when he branded the late Steve Irwin a showman more interested in stardom than the animal kingdom.

His comments came shortly after Irwin was killed when a stingray barb pierced his chest while filming a program last September.