A collaborator of Sir David Attenborough has shared a surprising story about how the documentarian came close to death during filming.
Producer Alastair Fothergill, who has worked with Sir David on Blue Planet and Planet Earth, has revealed a story about an incident that occurred in the 1990’s.
The story tells of Sir David filming dolphins off of the coast of the Bahamas on The Trials of Life.
He revealed: “We were filming David from the top of a boat that had a wooden platform on the back for people to dive off.
“We had just done a wonderful piece and David was about to go under the water again and a great wave washed him under the dive platform, which then came smashing down.”
Despite this story only coming out now, the severity of it has never left Alastair, he says.
Alastair continued: “I’ve never forgotten it because David was unconscious and there was blood everywhere.
“I remember thinking, ‘The one thing you don’t want on your CV is you’re the man who killed David Attenborough.’”
Luckily for the legendary broadcaster, the crew were able to rescue him promptly.
He was nowhere near any danger in his latest television endeavour, however.
Sir David recently filmed an ITV documentary with Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen’s Green Plant airs next week and features a conversation between the monarch and Sir David.
A recently released trailer showed the legendary broadcaster and The Queen walking through the royal gardens.
He even dove into politics recently, when he spoke to Express.co.uk about Donald Trump.
Sir David said: “I think it’s very sad indeed that such an important nation should have withdrawn its support once it had given it.”
He went on: “I don’t believe that it’s a permanent setback.
“I think it’s a temporary one and I think the nations of the world are now convinced about the problems that the ocean’s faced and we will all go on.”
Sir David has been broadcasting since 1952, and has worked on projects including Blue Planet, The Life of Mammals, and Life on Air.
This year Blue Planet II won the Impact Award at the National Television Awards.
Blue Planet is available on BBC iPlayer
