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To describe interviewing David Attenborough as nerve-racking is an understatement. He's been at the top of his game for the past 50 years, and it often feels like the sum knowledge of natural history is single-handedly down to what he has told us.
Since his groundbreaking Life on
Earth in 1979, the British wildlife film-maker has enthralled viewers with fascinating series about mammals, birds and insects. Now reptiles - including slithering snakes and slimy toads - are the subject of the final part of the project, entitled Life in Cold Blood - and not everybody is likely to be so enthused. "Yes, people tend to dismiss them as rather boring things that sit there and do nothing much and to some extent that's true," Attenborough says. "But if you know how and when to look, they're full of the most extraordinary behaviour."
Prejudices have led to reptiles being largely neglected by film-makers and Attenborough, 82, had to battle to convince the BBC to dedicate the 2 1/2 years required to complete the project.
"People in power deciding what's going into the schedule will say,`Why don't you something about monkeys? People are interested in monkeys, they're not interested in snakes'," he says in his familiar relaxed but authoritative tone. "You try to persuade them that there are many interesting stories that have never been seen before."
Attenborough and his team travelled as far and wide as Madagascar, California and Australia for the new series. The reason the filming took so long is that most reptilian activity is in spring. "Almost nothing happens in the weeks from October to February. If you're making a series you need to think, `Okay, how many spring seasons do I need?'."
Setting out to prove that so-called cold-blooded species such as snakes, lizards and frogs are, in fact, sophisticated and affectionate, Attenborough's discoveries surpassed his own expectations. In Madagascar, he was delighted to realise a long-held ambition to see, first hand, the smallest reptile in the world: a pygmy chameleon the size of a fingernail. The extraordinary find is captured in one of the behind-the-scenes films that accompany each of the five episodes in the series. Attenborough reveals how they managed to film the Panamanian golden frog just in time. "We knew a killer fungal disease was going to reach the little area where it lives so we went there early on," he says. "Afterwards, the local university collected every single golden frog they could find to keep them safe in a biologically secure quarantine."
After such a lengthy project, most people would take a well-earned rest, but Attenborough is now working on a programme about naturalist Charles Darwin.
* Life In Cold Blood starts on Prime tonight at 8.35pm.
