Culture

Those great old(ish) enthusiasts

February 03, 2009
Attenborough: the great enthusiast
Attenborough: the great enthusiast

Sunday evening was a great moment to see two great old enthusiasts doing what they do best --  and for taking in the death of a third. First, there was David Attenborough's passionate tribute to Darwin, 'Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life' (BBC 1, Sunday, 1 February, now available on the iplayer). There may be more revisionist or highbrow accounts of Darwin (see Adrian Desmond's article in the new issue of 'Prospect' for a terrific example), and I don't know what Steve Jones would have made of being buried as 'consultant' in the closing credits. Nevertheless, this excellent documentary managed to mix a sense of Attenborough's passion for geology and the natural world with Darwin's story, to make a compelling hour of television. What was so moving was Attenborough's lifelong enthusiasm, from schoolboy to old man now in his eighties. There will be no one to replace him.

There was just about time enough to change channels at the end for Sunday's 'South Bank Show', to see the more youthful Melvyn Bragg introduce Nigel Wattis on the impact of Footlights on TV and radio comedy in Britain over the past half century. Melvyn Bragg has been producing and editing arts programmes since 'Monitor' in the 1960s, and yet this was as fun an hour of arts television as any he's been involved with. The archive film and stills research was, as ever, superb and the talking heads were well chosen and illuminating.

Finally, the death, last Saturday, of Bill Frindall, the Bearded Wonder of 'Test Match Special', will have moved many. Cricket has always appealed because of its mix of sport, tradition and statistics, and Frindall was the embodiment of the obsessive counting which has drawn so many Englishmen to the sport. His own mix of passionate enthusiasm and benign omniscience won him the respect and admiration of many, many thousands of listeners.

What all three -- Attenborough, Bragg and Frindall -- have in common are two things: knowledge and enthusiasm for their chosen subjects. When you watch Attenborough it is his genuine fascination for the natural world, in all its forms, which is so exciting. Bragg, perhaps even more on 'Start the Week' than on 'In Our Time',  is passionately curious about the books and ideas he discusses. Frindall cared about every aspect of cricket. A no-ball was as exciting as the greatest six. What made these three men great broadcasters, among the greatest there have ever been, is their passion for their subject. Three lucky men  -- and, of course, lucky us to have enjoyed their company for all these years.