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The 9pm David Attenborough from 1984

Photograph of an audio cassette in its plastic case. A handwritten insert reads “Science journal 29.8.84 84/35” and then a list of the program items. (See later on the web page.) On the right-hand side is a the scan of a scratched-up black and white photo, with 35mm film sprocket holes. It’s a hotel room. A middle-aged white man in a grey suit sits on the couch with his elbows on the coffee table. He looks very tired. In the foreground, out of focus, the hands of someone off-camera load a reel of quarter-inch tape onto a Nagra recorder. Conversation is imminent.
An audio cassette recording of Science Journal 84/35 from 1984. (Photo: Stilgherrian) Inset: David Attenborough, seen in 1984. (Photo: Robin Goodfellow.)

Something different to kick off the mid-2026 series. Just two days ago, on the 8th of May, Sir David Attenborough celebrated his 100th birthday. As it happens, way back in 1984, I interviewed him when he was just Mr Attenborough, and here is that interview.

It was part of the program Science Journal series 1984 episode 35 from community station Radio 5UV, now Radio Adelaide, first broadcast on 29 August 2024.

I spent half an hour with Attenborough in his hotel room. It was his ninth interview for the day, and the greying gentleman in his fifties was visibly tired — particularly tired, he said, of being asked questions like “What’s your favourite animal”. But as I set up my equipment we chatted and, once he realised that I knew his work and knew what I was doing, his eyes began to sparkle just like on TV.

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Episode Links

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Also on that episode of Science Journal

Here’s what’s written on that cassette case.

  • The world’s most accurate clock (SJ exclusive story): Dr David Blair, Research Fellow at UWA (Nigel Russell) 15 min.
  • The Creator of The Living Planet: David Attenborough (Stilgherrian) 17 min.
  • Maths education in Britain and elsewhere: Prof Ubitaran D’Ambrosia, Brazil; Sir Wilfred Cockcroft 18 min.
  • Some unusual chemicals in the gut of the sand flathead: Prof Graham Campbell, Deot of Zoology, Uni of Melbourne (John Adams) 6 min.

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Series Credits

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