07 May,2026 06:26 PM IST | Mumbai | Athulya Nambiar
David Attenborough and Mike Gunton in Finland in 2020
David Attenborough's is a voice that generations of viewers will unmistakably remember as the one that brought Earth's wonders into their living rooms. For decades, Attenborough has been the face of nature storytelling- measured, authoritative, and deeply passionate. On May 8 2026, the legendary man turns 100 and is garnering more love than ever.
Ahead of his milestone birthday, Mid-day spoke to his longtime collaborator, Mike Gunton (Creative Director & Executive Producer at BBC Natural History Unit).
According to Mike Gunton, the man behind the camera is often far more mischievous than the public imagines. Gunton, who has worked extensively with Attenborough across landmark BBC productions, says his most treasured memories aren't of rare animals, remote jungles, or technically complex shoots, they're of what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.
"I think my biggest, my most intense memory is actually when we finish filming, cut, the cameras get put away, boxes get shut, we go back to the tent or back to the hotel or back to camp, open a few beers, and start talking about what we've just done," Gunton recalls. "That's my memory- just hilariously laughing."
For audiences who associate Attenborough with solemn narration and scientific precision, Gunton offers a different portrait.
"He's phenomenally funny. He could quite easily be an entertainer, a talk show host, something like that. He's got fantastic comedic timing. He's a great anecdote teller."
While Attenborough's on-screen persona carries a certain intensity"because he sees himself as an educator," Gunton explains, off screen, humour is central to who he is.
Gunton says some of that humour has increasingly found its way into Attenborough's recent work. One of his favourite examples came while filming The Green Planet.
Attenborough was explaining a species of cucumber-like plant that disperses its seeds by building up enormous water pressure until the slightest touch makes them explode. "He touched it with a stick and it just squirted seeds everywhere," Gunton remembers. "And you could see this grin on his face, he laughed his head off. That is him. The wonder, the beauty, but also the slight absurdity of nature is hilarious."
If Attenborough's humour is one side of his genius, Gunton says his instincts in the field are another. One moment, filmed years earlier for The Trials of Life, remains etched in his memory.
They were filming a sequence about the hermit hummingbird, a bird whose curved beak has evolved perfectly to feed from equally curved flowers. Attenborough was walking through the story on camera, explaining how the bird returns to the same flowers in carefully timed intervals.
"As he finished saying that the hummingbird needs to come back to the flower to begin the feeding process again, we suddenly heard this buzz," Gunton recalls.
A hummingbird appeared out of nowhere, hovered right in front of Attenborough, and flew off.
"Most people would have just stopped," Gunton says. "But David instantly looked up and said, âLook at that, right on time.'"
For Gunton, that moment captured Attenborough's brilliance.
"It was that speed of thought and understanding the television of it, that was genius," he says. "He's completely aware of what he's saying, but also of everything else happening around him."
Then, laughing, Gunton adds, "He's like Doctor Dolittle, animals do turn up when he's around."
Of all the adventures they've shared, one of Gunton's most vivid memories involves what might also be one of Attenborough's most outrageous assignments: crawling inside a termite mound.
It was 1989. Gunton was working on a programme about how animals build homes, and in their view, no home was more extraordinary than the towering termite mounds of Nigeria.
"These termite mounds are 15 to 20 feet high," Gunton explains. "Inside are millions of termites, all generating heat.
They should cook themselves alive. But somehow these tiny creatures have created this extraordinary air-conditioning system."
The challenge was figuring out how to show viewers what was happening inside. And the solution was to make David crawl into the mound.
A trench was dug six feet underground, leading into the mound's inner chamber. There was just one problem: the species they were filming was Macrotermes bellicosus.
"Macrotermes means big termite," Gunton explains. "Bellicosus means warlike."
The soldier termites, unsurprisingly, were not thrilled by the arrival of a six-foot intruder. "All we could hear was David crawling in while these termites were fighting him and attacking him," Gunton says.
When Attenborough finally emerged, he was covered in mud, his hair dishevelled, his shirt torn.
And then Gunton had to deliver the bad news of having to reshoot as they could not secure the footage due to angle issue.
"I had to tell him, âDavid⦠we have to do that again.'"
Attenborough's response?
"He just looked at me and said, âI've got another shirt.'"
The second take was perfect. "He crawled all the way in, delivered this fantastic piece to camera, and we got it."
Looking back now, Gunton laughs at the audacity of it all.
"I look back and think, what the hell was I thinking?" he says. "Luckily, I didn't get fired."
For Gunton, David Attenborough's greatest legacy lies in education. "He has shown us the wonders of nature in a way nobody else has," he says, adding that Attenborough's work also leaves viewers with a simple responsibility, to do their part in protecting the natural world for future generations.
You can catch Sir David Attenborough's epic collection of documentaries including Planet Earth series, Blue Planet and ASIA on BBC Player on Prime Video and Tata Play Binge, along with a new special, Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure on Sony BBC Earth.
