In the old days... it was a basic, cardinal fact that producers didn't have opinions. When I was producing natural history programmes, I didn't use them as vehicles for my own opinion. They were factual programmes.
Interpretation
Producers in the past prioritized factual storytelling over personal opinions in their work.
David Attenborough reflects on the traditional role of producers in media, emphasizing that in the past, they focused on presenting objective facts rather than injecting their personal opinions into the narrative. This approach ensured that natural history programs served as informative resources, allowing the audience to learn about the world without the bias of the producer's views. Attenborough's statement highlights the importance of factual integrity in documentary production and the respect for the audience's ability to form their own opinions based on presented facts.
In practice
In a documentary film festival, this quote can remind filmmakers to maintain objectivity in their storytelling.
I don't think we are going to become extinct. We're very clever and extremely resourceful - and we will find ways of preserving ourselves, of that I'm sure. But whether our lives will be as rich as they are now is another question.
I'm against this huge globalisation on the basis of economic advantage.
I would be absolutely astounded if population growth and industrialisation and all the stuff we are pumping into the atmosphere hadn't changed the climatic balance. Of course it has. There is no valid argument for denial.
There's a small worm called Loa Loa Filariasis. This parasite can survive in one environment exclusively- namely, underneath the skin and inside the eyes of human beings. Children and the elderly in tropical regions (usually the poorest) are the most widely affected. A painful, slow death is virtually certain. The worm can actually live in the host for 17 years before the host finally dies.
The fundamental issue is the moral issue.
It is vital that there is a narrator figure whom people believe. That's why I never do commercials. If I started saying that margarine was the same as motherhood, people would think I was a liar.
I never had a black teacher or lecturer, I never once met a black British person who held any sort of professional or managerial role.
It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics.
Like all readers, I want my limits to be drawn by my own sensibilities, not by my melanin count.
Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.
The greatness of the human personality begins at the hour of birth. From this almost mystic affirmation there comes what may seem a strange conclusion: that education must start from birth.
Universities are of course hostile to geniuses, which, seeing and using ways of their own, discredit the routine: as churches and monasteries persecute youthful saints.
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