Sir David Attenborough skips to the end of nature documentaries before watching them, a BBC producer has admitted.
According to BBC Natural History executive producer Mike Gunton, Attenborough likes to see the outcome of the programmes he narrates.
“He often spins to the end [of the programme before he narrates it] to find out what happens,” Gunton told The Daily Telegraph.
“He just wants to ensure that everything is OK, which I think is charmingly atypical of him.”
Gunton said that, while Attenborough wasn’t an “animal lover”, he cared what happens to the creatures in his documentaries.
In 2013, Attenborough told Metro that he is “intoxicated by animals” and has owned gibbons, chimpanzees, chameleons, snakes, and lemurs. The only creatures he does not like, however, are rats.
Last month, a climate protester from Animal Rebellion was arrested after reportedly approaching Attenborough at a Michelin-star restaurant on the south coast of England.
Dorset Police said Emma Smart, 45, was arrested after allegedly causing a disturbance and refusing to comply with officers after they asked her to leave Catch At The Old Fish Market in Weymouth.
According to Animal Rebellion, a protest group calling for a plant-based food system and a mass re-wilding programme, Smart targeted his visit to the Catch restaurant because of its expensive seafood menu.
Smart said in a statement: “The Catch is a symbol of excess and inequality in today’s world. Weymouth has average wages amongst the lowest in the UK and is at huge risk of sea level rises, yet this restaurant still continues business as usual amongst the worst cost-of-living crisis many will ever experience.
“We don’t need another documentary series showing us that we are losing, some 150 species going extinct globally every single day. What we need is action. Sir David is in a unique position to tell the truth about the biodiversity crisis.”
She added that Attenborough “has the chance to leave a legacy of love, care, and of being the forerunner of a better world”.
