David Attenborough's 100 Years on Planet Earth

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2026

Music
Nature

Summary

A live event from the Royal Albert Hall paying tribute to the veteran broadcaster on the occasion of his 100th birthday. The show takes the audience on a journey of exploration and discovery through the prism of Sir David's extraordinary life and career, featuring wildlife stories, reflections from friends, colleagues and admirers, and music from some of his programmes, performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Jérôme Kuhn

Review

David Butcher

Anyone who has been watching repeats of 1970s quiz show Face the Music on BBC4 will have spotted that David Attenborough was once a regular guest. The great man loves and is knowledgeable about music (in fact, the first TV series he produced, in 1953, was about folk songs), so it makes sense that the day of his 100th birthday is marked tonight by a live concert from the Royal Albert Hall.

As well as passages of music from the soundtracks of classic Attenbrough series, we will revisit a handful of memorable sequences. Expect clips of the racing snakes and iguanas from Planet Earth II, and no doubt certain Rwandan gorillas too.

In between, we’ll hear tributes from admirers, including Chris Packham, Liz Bonnin and Steve Backshall.

Kirsty Young hosts while the roster of artistes includes the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Jérôme Kuhn, the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, and Paraguayan harpist Francisco Yglesia, who will play a piece that was once featured on Zoo Quest.