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Who here doesn't like David Attenborough?

13

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,071 ✭✭✭Rosie Rant


    I love David Attenborough. I love his soothing voice ( I want him to read me bedtime stories), his marionette-like hand gestures and his passion for nature. He comes across as a genuinely lovely man.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    Jawgap wrote: »
    I think his RI lectures (on animal behaviour), which he insisted on doing live not on pre-record, indicate that his abilities were more than just superficial given he had to come up with demonstrations involving live animals that supported what he was saying but also worked on live television. He conceived, wrote and delivered the lectures from his own intellectual resources.

    My zoology lecturers in college highly rated him, so much so that one of our projects was based around one of his documentary series'. If the people that know their shít in this field think highly of him, that's good enough for me.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    Agricola wrote: »
    Kind of a common thing with documentaries about abstract concepts or in the case of history programmes, people that lived or events that occurred yonks ago. The audience would quickly zone out if it was just star maps and panning shots of marble statues, so the camera is forever fixed on the presenter as they prattle on.
    maudgonner wrote: »
    Some of them go really over the top though, make it way too personality driven, rather than letting the subjects take centre stage.

    Agreed. This is what I meant. I'm not saying the presenter should never appear. Sure, Attenborough has been in front of the camera on some of his shows. But Cox is too visible, IMO. And I don't really like his voice either. :o
    ScumLord wrote: »
    Brian just isn't as likeable as Attenborough. He's a bit smarmy and know it all but is well able to present the data he's talking about, he's clearly a smart man.

    Totally. Think he's being modelled as a physics Attenborough but nope! :o


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,033 ✭✭✭✭Richard Hillman


    When I want to go for an afternoon nap I throw on Frozen Planet to let Mr Attenborough sooth me to sleep.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,695 ✭✭✭bur


    Like his shows but i hear he's a bit of an asshole.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 104 ✭✭finooola


    Ol' Donie wrote: »
    Don't be silly. No one anywhere doesn't like David Attenburough.

    Such a great man.

    No, some people don't like him. I remember when Steve Irwin died hearing quite a few nasty comments along the lines of how Irwin was a man of the people and made nature accessible, unlike that posh, stuffy old Attenborough.

    Also, my boyfriend calls him "David Boringburgh".

    I like him though :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 832 ✭✭✭HamsterFace


    bur wrote: »
    Like his shows but i hear he's a bit of an asshole.

    Ah shtop!?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,419 ✭✭✭cowboyBuilder


    My brother spent about 6 weeks working with Orangutans in Malaysia 15 years ago, the people knew Attenborough he had stayed there during some filming sessions - apparently he was great craic around the camp fire and loved telling dirty jokes ! :D

    True!!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    finooola wrote: »
    Also, my boyfriend calls him "David Boringburgh".

    Your boyfriend has no taste.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,023 ✭✭✭✭Joe_ Public


    Indeed - David Attenborough is responsible for greenlighting Monty Python of all things - that's very notable.

    It's very rare to have a television presenter with as much infectious passion for a subject, as Attenborough (Patrick Moore is another - though pity about some of his outbursts, before passing), and such people are extremely valuable, even if not everybody may share their interests.

    You don't find many people like that anymore.

    Could not agree more. And how he has retained that passion into his 10th decade is simply astounding. Someone earlier wisely warned against idolatry, but I love this man unconditionally, he has been a continual force for good throughout his existence.

    Of the younger set (well 50ish or thereabouts) I like Chris Packham for the same reason, but I would never do him the disservice of holding him up to the light shone by Attenborough.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 104 ✭✭finooola


    Maireadio wrote: »
    I'm not that keen on Cox as a presenter. He tries too hard to convey wonder and that's very distracting. He inserts himself in front of the camera too much too.

    The worst thing about him is he overstates the importance and genius of humans. It rubs me the wrong way.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,069 ✭✭✭✭LordSutch


    Rosie Rant wrote: »
    I love David Attenborough. I love his soothing voice ( I want him to read me bedtime stories), his marionette-like hand gestures and his passion for nature. He comes across as a genuinely lovely man.

    This about sums him up, can't say farer than that.

    Loved all over the English speaking world and beyond, for all I know . . . .


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 338 ✭✭Fluffy Cat 88


    I don't like David Attenborough.

    I LOVE HIM!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,744 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    I like him, but i find it strange he has no interest in space.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 832 ✭✭✭HamsterFace


    I like him, but i find it strange he has no interest in space.

    And wine. He's never done a show on wine.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 99,563 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    He's probably responsible for more sex and violence on our screens than anyone.



    Also was responsible for other stuff tooBBC Two was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music, the arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned included Man Alive, Call My Bluff, Chronicle, Life, One Pair of Eyes, The Old Grey Whistle Test, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Money Programme. When BBC Two became the first British channel to broadcast in colour in 1967, Attenborough took advantage by introducing televised snooker, as well as bringing rugby league to British television on a regular basis via the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy.[/QUOTE]

    When are they showing the restored Zooquest stuff ?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    I like him, but i find it strange he has no interest in space.

    How do you know he doesn't? It's just not his field of expertise.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,673 ✭✭✭AudreyHepburn


    How could anyone not like David Attenborough?! I have to say I would lose a little of my respect for anyone who thinks badly of him.

    He's a hero of mine and the reason I love nature so much. My Dad introduced me to him through Life on Earth when I was a little girl and I have been hooked ever since.

    I became such a fan that I wrote to Attenborough when I was about 9, asking him why he loved nature so much and how he became a naturalist. His reply has stayed with me to this day. He said he didn't really know how he became a naturalist but that he hoped I was always continue to be interested because it would give me endless hours of wonder.

    How right he was!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,744 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    Maireadio wrote: »
    How do you know he doesn't? It's just not his field of expertise.

    He mentioned it in a tv interview


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    He mentioned it in a tv interview

    I guess he's not a polymath.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,652 ✭✭✭CaraMay


    Attenborough has led a truly charmed, enviable life working for a state broadcaster surrounded by expert naturalists and cameramen.
    I find this sentiment odd but very Irish. How dare he have a good life when people are living in hotels and children starving in Africa

    Everyone should be equally miserable eh?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,744 ✭✭✭✭nacho libre


    He has always said he is embarrassed by the praise he gets as there are fantastic people around him whose work goes unheralded.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,455 ✭✭✭maudgonner


    I like him, but i find it strange he has no interest in space.

    Well he's still finding enough things on this planet to fascinate him. Give him another 90 years and he might have seen all there is to see on Earth and turn his attention to the stars :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,115 ✭✭✭✭Junkyard Tom


    CaraMay wrote: »
    I find this sentiment odd but very Irish. How dare he have a good life when people are living in hotels and children starving in Africa

    Everyone should be equally miserable eh?

    Quite bizarre how you're extracting these sentiments from the sentences I wrote.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 12,442 ✭✭✭✭J Mysterio


    wylie wrote: »
    I've learned more from dave than all my teachers.....probably.

    This is a good one.

    I was really enjoying that, lulled into a trance by DA and then the bird impersonated chainsaws cutting down his habitat :(


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,989 ✭✭✭Noo


    When it comes to doing a piss-take documentry narration everyone reverts back their best Attenborough impression...he's ingrained in us all.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 12,442 ✭✭✭✭J Mysterio


    I like him, but i find it strange he has no interest in space.

    Really? Where did you get that?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 662 ✭✭✭Maireadio


    Quite bizarre how you're extracting these sentiments from the sentences I wrote.

    A lot of what you wrote was inaccurate though. He is trained in the field himself and has a deep knowledge of the subject and this comes across in his work. You can't fake that. And being the commumate broadcaster he is, is much harder than it looks.

    And as people said, as BBC Controller, he took a lot of chances and generally used his noggin.

    His success is not mostly down to other people, as you implied.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 649 ✭✭✭MillField


    I don't see the problem..I've always liked Boaty McBoatface and his documentaries..


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,787 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    J Mysterio wrote: »
    I was really enjoying that, lulled into a trance by DA and then the bird impersonated chainsaws cutting down his habitat :(
    Maybe the Lyre bird was actually having an extension put onto his next with all the BBC money he made from that appearance.


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