It has come to be a sort of cliché that English accent narrators are “preferred” to do voice work for nature documentaries. This is largely due to the life-long work that Sir David Attenborough has done together with the BBC over eight decades, adding up to a comprehensive survey of plants, animals, reptiles, and amphibians on our planet. The series “Life on Earth” and “The Blue Planet” are two iconic examples of the many documentary series that he has written, narrated, and produced. Attenborough has also delved into fossils, the frozen polar regions, reefs, used infrared cameras to see nocturnal animal behavior and macro photography to see very small creatures, time-lapse photography, and used pretty much every other means to capture life as we know it.

Attenborough is an environmental advocate who has used his fame to push leading edge science by conducting interviews with key experts on various aspects of climate change. He has been more than a voice or a speaker, but was also derided for not speaking strongly enough at times. This seems to have significantly changed around 2006, and his subsequent projects have reflected a more direct address of key issues such as human responsibility for global warming and the Sixth Mass Extinction.