We are delighted to announce that producer, author and director Alastair Fothergill will be speaking and showing footage of his work at our Literature & Landscape festival in October 2026.
David Attenborough on location filming Life in the Freezer (1993) – one of many natural history documentary series produced by Alastair Fothergill.
Life on Earth (1979) Attenborough’s first global broadcasting phenomenon, reached 15 million viewers in the UK and 500 million across the world. Billions have since watched his work over more than seven decades
Alastair credits Life on Earth with inspiring him to channel his love of nature through the medium of television, thanks – as he wrote in The Telegraph this week – to ‘the extraordinary power of David as a communicator… the narrative, the storytelling, was just amazing’. He describes how David will take his pen to a script that has been refined over many months and within minutes – sometimes on location behind a tree – transform the words into something that people will instantly connect with. ‘What he does, it’s not just fiddling, it’s crafting, and it’s bloody good.’
Awe-inspiring footage, shot over months of patience and endurance in the harshest of environments is engaging enough, but Alastair suggests it is the stories that have the power to change minds and win over Attenborough’s fans into caring deeply about the beauty, fascination and fragility of the natural world.
Working with dedicated and talented visionaries like David Attenborough, Alastair has been able over his own 40-year career to draw audiences into a deep personal connection with wildlife and wildlife habitats, one that makes us want to do what we can to remedy the many existential threats that are driving the biodiversity crisis year on year.
There is something particularly democratic about being able to experience rare moments in the natural world from the comfort of our sofas. Nature engagement and being outdoors cheer us and bring a wonderfully calming sense of perspective. Yet this way – via our screens – we can enjoy all of that without disturbing the creatures that need space and privacy to survive and thrive.
Alastair’s latest documentary: A Gorilla Story is told by David Attenborough and came out on Netflix in April. Please have a look at this 5* review in The Guardian.
Alastair is the author of 8 books including The Wild Isles – which accompanied the series of that name – co-written with Norfolk’s Patrick Barkham. Alastair was Head of the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol for six years and went on to found Silverback Films. He was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Cherry Kearton Medal in 1996 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Television Society in 2016 for his work in natural history programming.
Executive Producer Alastair Fothergill (far left) with presenter David Attenborough and producer Vanessa Berlowicz at the making of the first BBC series of Frozen Planet in 2011.
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