Sir David Attenborough fulfils Pole ambition

WILDLIFE presenter Sir David Attenborough has realised a life-long ambition by reaching the North Pole for the first time.

The veteran broadcaster, who turns 84 in May, was filming in the Arctic Circle for Frozen Planet, a natural history series due to air on BBC One in late 2011.

Sir David will present and write the final episode in which he looks at what the future might hold for the animals and people who live at the Poles and what the effects of climate change there might mean for everyone else.

Speaking from the Svalbard archipelago, 700 miles from the North Pole, yesterday he said:

"Having seen what I've just seen – from penguins to polar bears, from the frozen ocean to snow-covered volcanoes – I can't imagine why I've left visiting these marvellous, astonishing and beautiful places until so late in my life."