MAY/JUNE 2026
LIFE ON EARTH ATTENBOROUGH’S GREATEST ADVENTURE
When you imagine a nature documentary, whose voice do you hear? The answer is likely Sir David Attenborough. The biologist, natural historian, and iconic television personality has been our guide through the living world — inspiring generations of viewers to learn about planet earth and how to appreciate and care for our home. To celebrate Sir David’s 100th birthday, PBS presents Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure. The original 13-episode documentary, Life on Earth, was a landmark in wildlife filmmaking. The classic BBC series took Attenborough and his crew around the world over the course of three years to obtain footage of many creatures and behaviors for the first time. Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure gives viewers a glimpse from behind the camera and features new interviews with Attenborough and the original production team. They reveal the highs and lows of filming the unprecedented leadoff series, which was created when global air travel and color filmmaking were in their infancy. Yet, this was far from the crew’s only challenge. They ran upon a coup on the island nation of Comoros in southeastern Africa and met gunshots near the equator in Rwanda. Nevertheless, the cinematographers captured Attenborough’s astonishing encounter with mountain gorillas, which is considered one of the top TV moments of all time. First broadcast in 1979, Life on Earth followed Attenborough as he traveled to 40 countries where his crew filmed 600 different species. The groundbreaking documentary has been watched by 500 million people worldwide, cementing Sir David’s reputation as the most successful, well-known, and influential wildlife filmmaker of our time. Since then, Attenborough’s extensive programming has taken PBS viewers on fascinating journeys into the natural world, and many of his films have been shown on NATURE and NOVA, and are available for streaming on PBS Passport. During his long career, Attenborough embraced technology to reinvent storytelling and portray animals, plants, and ecosystems in fascinating ways. His numerous series helped pioneer filmmaking methods such as time-lapse cameras, super slow motion, infrared filming, and underwater photography. If you thought his boundless imagination was only limited to the natural world, here’s a fun fact about Sir David Attenborough. When he worked for the BBC earlier in his career, he commissioned Kenneth Clark’s critically acclaimed Civilisation, as well as Monty Python’s Flying Circus — both considered early PBS treasures. Whether you are a longtime admirer of Sir David Attenborough’s work or new to his engaging style, you won’t want to miss Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure. Premieres Wednesday, May 6 at 8 p.m. on VPM PBS.
VPM.org