Published: 08:00 pm, 18 February 2026
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.
New programmes
Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure – featuring new interviews with David and the original production team as they reflect on the making of the ground-breaking series Life on Earth for BBC One and iPlayer
Secret Garden – a new primetime series for BBC One and iPlayer, in which Attenborough reveals the hidden worlds and remarkable wildlife thriving within Britain’s gardens
David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth – a celebratory live event for BBC One and iPlayer from the Royal Albert Hall, featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra and special guests.
From the archive
Special episodes from some of Attenborough’s most beloved landmark series, airing on BBC One in the week leading up to his birthday
A dedicated BBC iPlayer collection showcasing more than 40 series presented by David, celebrating one of the most remarkable bodies of work in broadcasting history.
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.”
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. Along the way, the crew encountered multiple challenges, including a coup in the Comoros, being shot at in Rwanda and threats from Saddam Hussein’s army in Iraq. Broadcast in 1979 and watched by 500 million people worldwide, it confirmed David’s reputation as the most successful and influential wildlife filmmaker of our time. His astonishing encounter with gorillas in the mountains of Rwanda for this series is frequently voted one of the top TV moments of all time.
Making Life on Earth: Attenborough’s Greatest Adventure, a 1×60’, for BBC One and iPlayer, is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and co-produced by PBS. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual and the Commissioning Editor was Sreya Biswas, former Head of Commissioning, Natural History. The Executive Producer is Mike Davis, Production Executive is Sue Aartse-Tuyn and Producer Director is Victoria Bobin. Diana El-Osta is the Executive in Charge for PBS. BBC Studios is handling global sales.
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Secret Garden
(Image: Plimsoll Productions)
In Wild Isles and Wild London, David showed us the remarkable wildlife dramas playing out in the British countryside and on the streets of our capital city. Now, in Secret Garden, he’s turning his attention to Britain’s backyards.
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.
From pine martens in the Western Highlands to dormice in South Wales, swallows in the Lake District to otters in Oxfordshire and blue tits in Bristol, the series reveals not just a rich and surprising diversity of life but also how each species finds its own way to live alongside us.
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.
You’ll never look at your garden in the same way again.
Secret Garden, a 5×60’ series for BBC One and iPlayer, is made by Plimsoll Productions, part of ITV Studios, co-produced by The Open University and The National Trust in association with ARTE France. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The Executive Producers are Grant Mansfield, Martha Holmes and Mark Brownlow and the Series Producer is Bill Markham. The Commissioning Editor is Tom Watt-Smith. Global distribution will be handled by ITV Studios.
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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.
Accompanied by the BBC Concert Orchestra, it will feature original compositions from some of David’s best-known landmark series. Alongside the music, guests will include some of those he has collaborated with from the world of conservation and wildlife filmmaking.
David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth, for BBC One and iPlayer, is jointly staged and produced by BBC Studios Music Productions, and its Natural History Unit. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The Executive Producers are Alison Howe for Music and Mike Davis and Jonny Keeling for the NHU. The Commissioning Editor is Tom Watt-Smith.
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BBC One will also pay tribute to David’s phenomenal body of work by screening episodes of some of the viewers’ favourite series, including Planet Earth II; Seven Worlds, One Planet; Blue Planet II; Planet Earth III; Frozen Planet II; and his most recent film Wild London.
BBC iPlayer will add a special rail to the homepage where viewers can choose to stream from over 40 of David’s best loved programmes, from Zoo Quest to his most recent series including Kingdom, Parenthood and Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster.
BBC Radio will also be marking David’s birthday with special content across its networks. More details will be announced in due course.
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