Sir David Attenborough 🌍 Britain's #1 National Treasure [1005]

Luke Thompson (0:00)

Thank you for choosing Luke's ENGLISH Podcast. For more episodes with specific vocabulary and pronunciation teaching, plus ad-free listening, access to the Premium community, and to show your support for the podcast, sign up to LEP Premium at teacherluke.co.uk/premium.

You're listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teacherluke.co.uk.

Hello, listeners. Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast. How are you doing today? I hope you're doing fine. Welcome to this brand new episode. And today on the podcast, I would like to celebrate the life of a living legend, and that is Sir David Attenborough. Have you ever heard of David Attenborough? Do you know who he is?

If you look at the PDF for this, I've added a photograph at the top, and you'll see David sitting in a chair. And then another picture behind him, which is him in 1979, lying down on some grass in the jungle with a gorilla sitting on top of him, a young gorilla. And this is a picture from one of the most amazing moments in television that I remember seeing on TV a few times. And it was just absolutely incredible moment when David and a BBC camera crew went to Rwanda, went to the jungle in Rwanda, and filmed very closely a family of gorillas. And it was incredible moment because obviously you think these creatures might be dangerous and also quite shy.

And yet David and his crew managed to get really close to them and film them. And not only that, they ended up interacting with him. One of the young ones decided to climb all over him and play with him and the mother gorilla who was sitting just next to them at one point grabbed David's head and turned his head with her big hand and stared right into his eyes.

And that was just one of the most brilliant moments of television that David was involved in or has been involved in in his life. And I'll talk more about that gorilla encounter in this episode, as well as lots of other incredible moments with animals that I saw. And so many people have seen in his documentaries over the years. So David Attenborough is the name of the episode and also the subject of this episode. So this will be a rambling tribute to this British gentleman who so many of us know and love. Well, most of us don't know him personally, of course. But we kind of feel like we do because we listen to him as children when he spoke to us every week in our living rooms on television. In terms of language learning opportunities with this episode, because this is a podcast for Learners of English, of course, look out for English for describing someone's character, achievements and career, descriptions of animals, including their behaviour and habitat, the language of conservationism, environmental awareness, and various personal reflections and anecdotes and rambling memories from me, which I will attempt to put clearly into words and sentences in English, of course. I'm sure the episode will be rich with vocabulary and perhaps some complex grammar. Here and there, as I attempt to do justice to this man through my words. So plenty for you to feed on in terms of nutrient-rich language input for the development of your English. Sir David Attenborough, yes. Now perhaps I should mention my ex-girlfriend at the start of this episode, just to get your attention, right? Shall I talk about my ex-girlfriend just to get your attention?

Actually, there is a connection with last week's episode of this podcast, in which I retold the story of Jurassic Park from the point of view of one of the characters. Have you heard that? That was not a true story, by the way, everyone, despite what some listeners seem to think, judging by the comments. No, I've never actually worked as a paleontologist. I never had a paleobotanist girlfriend who left me and broke my heart. And no, dinosaurs have never actually been brought back from extinction through cloning, thanks to extracted dinosaur DNA from mosquitoes preserved in prehistoric amber, as far as I know. Anyway, in the film of Jurassic Park, the character of the billionaire park owner, John Hammond, was played by the great British actor and director, Sir Richard Attenborough. And he is the brother of David Attenborough, the subject of today's episode.

Both of the Attenborough brothers are household names in the UK. If something is a household name, it's basically like a name, a person, or maybe a brand or something that is known in most households, most households around the country. A household is basically a home with a family living in it.

So both the Attenboroughs, Richard Attenborough from Jurassic Park and David Attenborough, who I'm talking about today, they're both household names in the UK. So there is a connection, there is the connection to last week's episode then. Anyway, so David Attenborough, do you know this person? I wonder how well known he is all around the world. You might be aware of him already, and if you are, then I'm sure that you're also a fan, because he is that sort of person. If you know about him, you tend to be a fan of his. Maybe you don't know his name, but you might know his voice, or maybe you know absolutely nothing about this person at all, in which case, you're in luck, because he's great and so is his work, much of which you can enjoy online now. And I'm going to tell you a lot of what you need to know about him today. So there are many reasons to talk about David Attenborough and to celebrate him on this podcast. One of those reasons is that he turned 100 years old earlier this year, in May to be exact. So happy belated 100th birthday to David, Sir David. I wanted to do an episode dedicated to him in May. In fact, I've been wanting to do an episode about David Attenborough and his work for years, but I just have never managed to get myself organized to do it, and I didn't get myself organized in time for his birthday in May. But still, better late than never. So who is David Attenborough then, and why should I devote an entire episode to talking about him and his life? So the first part of that question is a little easier to explain than the second. So who is he?