Sir David Attenborough is to participate in a documentary for the BBC celebrating the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth was the UK’s longest-reigning monarch, serving as its head of state for 70 years before her death in 2022.
Titled Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century, this dedicated documentary will be broadcast on what would have been her 100th birthday.
Utilising archive footage and new interviews, it will look at some of the landmark events which occurred during the Queen’s lifetime, from the Blitz to the London 2012 Olympics.
Among those contributing to the documentary is Sir David, who also celebrates his 100th birthday this May.
The documentarian and national treasure will join Dame Helen Mirren, Queen Camilla, and former US President Barack Obama in paying tribute to the Queen’s life and legacy.
Following her death in September four years ago, Sir David recalled his own numerous interactions with the Queen.
In a statement to the PA News Agency, he said: ‘If there was a technical hitch, she wanted to know what it was, and if it had a funny side, she was quick to see the joke.
‘Yet not for one second could you forget that you were in the presence of someone who had willingly accepted enormous responsibility and dedicated her life to serving the nation – that you were, in short, in the presence of royalty.
‘The whole nation is bereaved.’
Sir David had known the Queen for many years, having produced her televised Christmas Day address for more than five years in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 2018, they joined forces for The Queen’s Green Plane – a landmark documentary that followed her in an ambitious project to create a global network of protected forests across the 52 Commonwealth countries.
Praising her sense of humour, Sir David also told ITV News that if she found something to be funny, then she’d laugh ‘in a genuine way’.
He added: ‘She was an expert at getting people to relax.
‘When you met her, you were well-aware that you were in the presence of someone who was extremely important to our society, and yet she made it seem that you were meeting another human being with exactly the same conditions that all human beings have.’
On the documentary, Catherine Catton, head of factual entertainment and events, said: ‘Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century explores the life of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II through the lens of a century of change and offers an important reflection on how modern Britain has been shaped.’
Also participating in the documentary is Dame Helen Mirren, who played Elizabeth II in the 2006 film, The Queen, and in the 2013 stage play The Audience.
Also commenting on the monarch’s death, Dame Helen posted at the time: ‘I’m mourning along with the rest of my country, the passing of a great Queen. I am proud to be an Elizabethan. We mourn a woman, who, with or without the crown, was the epitome of nobility.’
Aged 96 when she died, Sir David is the same age as Queen Elizabeth – even born a month apart, in April and May 1926, respectively.
And what is Sir David’s secret to a long life?
For one, he’s largely vegetarian, telling Radio Times in 2020: ‘The planet can’t support billions of meat eaters. If we all ate only plants, we’d need only half the land we use at the moment.’
He clarified: ‘I do eat cheese, I have to say, and I eat fish. But by and large, I’ve become much more vegetarian over the past few years than I thought I would ever be.’
However, he later admitted to occasionally eating a bit of chicken, describing himself as a ‘chicken-eating hypocrite’ in an interview with The Times.
In addition to his largely meat-free diet, Sir David possesses a sense of purpose which has likely contributed to his longevity.
Since releasing his first major documentary in 1954, the former producer has kept busy ever since – working on over 100 documentaries and series over the course of his life so far.
With beloved mega hits which include The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Life in Colour and Madagascar – to name but a few – he’s more than earned his national treasure status.
Queen Elizabeth II: Her Story, Our Century will air on BBC One and iPlayer later this year.
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