BBC MARK DAVID ATTENBOROUGH'S 100th BIRTHDAY WITH SLATE OF NEW COMMISSIONS

The BBC has commissioned a slate of new shows to mark Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, on Friday 8 May, and will be showcasing some of the finest programmes from his extraordinary seven-decade career in a week-long celebration of his work and legacy.

Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure

In 1976, production began on David Attenborough's Life on Earth. No-one had ever attempted a natural history series on this scale before. This is the remarkable story behind one of the BBC’s most famous wildlife blockbusters. A three-year, hair-raising odyssey around the world, travelling to 40 countries, across a million miles, and filming over 600 species.

Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure goes behind-the-scenes on this ground-breaking landmark series, featuring exclusive interviews with David Attenborough and other members of the original crew. With fascinating insights, they reveal the highs and lows of filming the series during a truly exciting moment in television history, when global jet travel and colour filming were still in their infancy.

Secret Garden

Over five episodes - set in five very different gardens across the UK - David reveals the lives of the often charming, occasionally daring, always secretive animals that inhabit the hidden world right on our doorsteps. Theirs is no cosy existence - even in these beautiful and seemingly genteel surroundings the rules of the wild still operate.

Through meeting the gardeners that have created these wild oases, we discover how our nation of animal lovers and gardeners can do their bit to save struggling species. Eighty per cent of Britons have access to a garden, and together they cover an area greater than all of our national nature reserves combined - so what we do in our own backyards has an impact not only on the animals that live there, but also on whole populations.

David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth

In celebration of David’s 100th birthday on Friday 8 May, BBC One will bring the nation together for a live event honouring his ground-breaking career at the forefront of natural history storytelling.

Held on his birthday at London’s Royal Albert Hall, the event will take audiences on a journey through a century of exploration and discovery in the natural world, seen through the prism of David’s extraordinary life. It will feature dramatic wildlife stories, accompanied by live music from his programmes, alongside spoken reflections from public figures and leading advocates for the natural world.

Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, says: “It’s impossible to overstate what Sir David Attenborough has given us. His programmes have not only defined Science and Natural History broadcasting, but they have also changed how we see our planet and our place within it...

"This special week is a celebration of an extraordinary milestone, and of a body of work that continues to inspire awe, curiosity and care for the natural world. It’s also a moment for all of us at the BBC to say thank you to David — for his generosity, for his brilliance, and for a lifetime spent bringing the wonders of nature into our homes.”

Transmission details will be announced in due course.