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 grew up to be indifferent to the distinction between literature and science, which in my teens were simply two languages for experience that I learned together.
Why don't we teach our children in school what they are? We should say to them, 'You are unique... you have the capacity for anything. You are a marvel'.
There are some people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.
Courses in the humanities, in particular, often seem impractical, but they are vital, because they stretch your imagination and challenge your mind to become more responsive, more critical, bigger.
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind
I like to read things I've read before. It's like listening over and over to your favorite song.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.