Nature programmes an endangered species with BBC cutbacks, says Attenborough

Published on Monday 21 January 2008 21:40

SIR David Attenborough, the veteran wildlife presenter, yesterday attacked the BBC's decision to cut jobs in its acclaimed natural history unit.

The renowned division, which has produced Planet Earth, The Blue Planet and Springwatch, will lose almost a third of its programme-makers as part of corporation-wide budget cuts.

The Bristol-based unit will see 57 out of 180 staff posts axed and 12 million sliced off its 37 million budget.

Sir David spoke out just days before his new series Life in Cold Blood, about the world of reptiles and amphibians, is broadcast on BBC1.

Costing around 800,000 for each episode, it is the final chapter in Sir David's epic Life programmes, which began in 1979 with Life On Earth.

Groundbreaking footage in the new series includes films of the Panamanian golden frog waving, a rattlesnake hunting in the wild, the caecilian, a worm-like amphibian, allowing its young to feast on its skin and of a snake jumping.

Planet Earth, which Sir David narrated in 2006, was a huge commercial success for the BBC, with sales worldwide.

However, the veteran broadcaster told the Radio Times that there would be less natural history programming on the BBC as a result of the cuts.

Sir David, 81, said: "With cuts of that size, you can't continue the same level of output, or if you do, you're going to replace it with something very skimpy."

The BBC has been warned by independent wildlife-show producers that the cuts would have "reverberations way beyond the BBC" as the natural history unit was a leader in its field.

Last October, the BBC outlined plans to cut 2,500 jobs across the UK. Sir David has joined a number of high-ranking presenters, including John Humphrys and Jeremy Paxman, in publicly criticising the move.

Sir David has won a string of awards since his career at the BBC began in its talks department in 1952. His Zoo Quest series, which began in 1954, saw him travel the world over the next ten years. In 1965, he became controller of BBC2 and was responsible for the introduction of colour TV in Britain.

And, in 1969, Sir David was appointed director of programmes with editorial responsibility for both of the BBC's television networks.

Sir David returned to programme-making in 1973 with Eastwards with Attenborough, a natural history series set in south-east Asia.

Around 500 million people worldwide watched the 13-part 1979 series Life on Earth, which, at the time, was the most ambitious series ever produced by the natural history unit.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman for the BBC said: "The big landmark pieces and events such as Springwatch are continuing on the BBC, and quality will in no way be compromised."

Last year, Sir David was involved in a spat with Paxman after the Newsnight presenter

said it was "bizarre" that BBC nature programmes such as Planet Earth flew crews around the globe leaving a "vapour trail", even as they warned of the perils of climate change.

However, Sir David insisted any damage done by such programmes was offset by how they were raising people's awareness of threats to the environment.

TV POWER SHIFT ROW

DAVID Cairns, the Scotland Office minister, yesterday warned that devolving power over broadcasting to Holyrood would be an "extraordinarily backwards step".

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has called for responsibility for the industry to be transferred from Westminster.

But Mr Cairns – speaking ahead of a major television industry conference in Salford today – branded the move a "frankly Luddite proposition".

Pete Wishart, the SNP's culture and media spokesman at Westminster, is expected to argue at the event that the case for devolving broadcasting is "overwhelming".

However, Mr Cairns said: "It makes no sense. A Scottish broadcasting authority would be an extraordinarily backward step."