117-579: The 1955-56 Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition was a publicity effort by the Rover Company as manufacturer of the Land Rover Series I 86" Station Wagons. The station wagons were very different from the previous Tickford model, being built with bolt-together aluminium panels. The journey was undertaken by six Oxford & Cambridge university students from London to Singapore. The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition
234-419: A BBC One wildlife series that ran for 253 episodes between 1977 and 2005. At its peak, it drew a weekly audience of eight to ten million, and the 1987 episode "Meerkats United" was voted the best wildlife documentary of all time by BBC viewers. He has narrated over 50 episodes of Natural World , BBC Two's flagship wildlife series. Its forerunner, The World About Us , was created by Attenborough in 1969, as
351-515: A BirdLife International project to stop the killing of albatross by longline fishing boats. He gave support to WWF 's campaign to have 220,000 square kilometres of Borneo 's rainforest designated a protected area . He serves as a vice-president of The Conservation Volunteers , vice-president of Fauna and Flora International , president of Butterfly Conservation and president emeritus of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust . In 2003, Attenborough launched an appeal on behalf of
468-488: A Peabody Award . Prompted by an enthusiastic ornithologist at the BBC Natural History Unit, Attenborough then turned his attention to birds. As he was neither a birdwatcher nor a bird expert, he decided he was better qualified to make The Life of Birds (1998) on the theme of behaviour. The documentary series won a second Peabody Award the following year. The order of the remaining "Life" series
585-561: A turbocharger built by Rover's gas turbine division as well as an intercooler . This was one of the first times these features had been incorporated on such a small-capacity diesel unit, but they were not adopted. After the Leyland Motor Corporation takeover, the Rover Gas Turbine was used in a number of Leyland trucks, including one shown at the 1968 Commercial Motor Show. Rover gas turbines also powered
702-545: A 2013 interview with the Radio Times , Attenborough described humans as a "plague on the Earth", and described the act of sending food to famine -stricken countries as "barmy" for population reasons. He called for more debate about human population growth, saying that since he "first started making programmes 60 years ago, the human population has tripled." According to Attenborough, improving women's rights around
819-464: A Brown and Barlow carburettor and Druid spring forks. This new model was launched at the 1910 Olympia show and over 500 were sold. In 1913 a 'TT' model was launched with a shorter wheelbase and sports handlebars. The 'works team' of Dudley Noble and Chris Newsome had some success and won the works team award. Rover supplied 499 cc single-cylinder motorcycles to the Russian Army during
936-476: A book on the subject, "Last Overland" and a Channel 4 documentary was also produced. The expedition set out with only a limited quantity of film from the BBC, but with the promise of more from David Attenborough if the initial material sent back was good. In the end there was enough material for 3 short films for the BBC series 'Traveller's Tales' which were shot in colour, but only transmitted in black and white. In
1053-647: A clause inserted in his contract that would allow him to continue making programmes on an occasional basis. Later the same year he filmed elephants in Tanzania, and in 1969 he made a three-part series on the cultural history of the Indonesian island of Bali . For the 1971 film A Blank on the Map , he joined the first Western expedition to a remote highland valley in New Guinea to seek out a lost tribe . BBC Two
1170-613: A different engine layout, known within Rover as the B.26, which they thought was superior), led to Rover handing over their part in the jet engine project and the Barnoldswick factory to Rolls-Royce in exchange for the latter's Meteor tank engine factory at Ascot Road, Nottingham, the result of a handshake deal between Rover's Spencer Wilks and Rolls-Royce's Ernest Hives made in a local inn in Clitheroe. The official hand-over date
1287-464: A final section of the work. He also narrated Wild Karnataka , a documentary about the Karnataka forest area. In 2019, Attenborough's one-off film documentary about climate change for BBC One called Climate Change – The Facts was aired; the tone of the documentary was significantly graver than previous work for the BBC. This was followed by Extinction: The Facts , which is partly based on
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#17327800567881404-399: A five-part earth science series for BBC One. Attenborough was a key figure in the build-up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and gave a speech at the opening ceremony. In his speech he stated that humans were "the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth" and spoke of his optimism for the future, finishing by saying "In my lifetime I've witnessed
1521-560: A freelance broadcaster and started work on his next project, a trip to Indonesia with a crew from the Natural History Unit. It resulted in the 1973 series Eastwards with Attenborough , which was similar in tone to the earlier Zoo Quest ; the main difference was the introduction of colour. Attenborough stated that he wanted to work in Asia, because previous nature documentaries had mostly focused on Africa. That year, Attenborough
1638-589: A long-lasting increase in public, media and political attention to plastic pollution . Attenborough narrated the 2018 five-part series Dynasties , each episode dealing with one species in particular. In 2021, he presented the three-part series Attenborough's Life in Colour , and The Mating Game , a five-part series. Attenborough returned to prehistoric life with Dinosaurs: The Final Day and Prehistoric Planet aired in April and May 2022 respectively. By
1755-568: A more prominent role in Frozen Planet , a major series on the natural history of the polar regions ; Attenborough appeared on screen and authored the final episode, in addition to performing voiceover duties. Attenborough introduced and narrated the Unit's first 4K production Life Story . For Planet Earth II (2016), Attenborough returned as narrator and presenter, with the main theme music composed by Hans Zimmer . In October 2014,
1872-414: A new design of internal expanding brakes. Poor sales of their motorcycles caused Rover to end motorcycle production and concentrate solely on the production of motor cars. Between 1903 and 1924 Rover had produced more than 10,000 motorcycles. In 1888, Starley made an electric car , but it was never put into production. Three years after Starley's death in 1901, and H. J. Lawson's subsequent takeover,
1989-643: A new small car. This was the Rover Scarab with a rear-mounted V-twin-cylinder air-cooled engine announced in 1931, a van version was shown at Olympia, but it did not go into production. During this time the Rover 10/25 was introduced, with bodies made by the Pressed Steel Company . This was the same body as used on the Hillman Minx . Prior to this time Rover had been a great supporter of
2106-648: A new subsidiary known as Land Rover Limited which encompassed much of the original assets of the Rover Company and the production of the Series Land Rover and Range Rover, which by now had become one of the beleaguered conglomerate's most profitable product lines. Production of the Rover SD1 moved to the former BMC/Morris plant in Cowley in 1982, signalling the end for Rover-badged car production at
2223-466: A part until the Rover Group was broken up by BMW in 2000. Currently, the Rover marque is the dormant property of the Rover Company's de facto successor – Jaguar Land Rover (owned by Tata Motors ), which still operates out of Rover's Solihull plant. The company was founded by John Kemp Starley and William Sutton in 1878. Starley had previously worked with his uncle, James Starley (father of
2340-484: A producer for the Talks department, which handled all non-fiction broadcasts. His early projects included the quiz show Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and Song Hunter, a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax . Attenborough's association with natural history programmes began when he produced and presented the three-part series Animal Patterns. The studio-bound programme featured animals from London Zoo , with
2457-447: A programme which highlighted the plight of endangered species to the BBC's Saving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit. In 2019, Attenborough narrated Our Planet , an eight-part documentary series, for Netflix . In contrast to much of his prior work for the BBC, this series emphasised the destructive role of human activities throughout the series. Before, he would often note concerns in
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#17327800567882574-474: A rate much greater than piston engines, equivalent to 6 miles per imperial gallon (5.0 mpg ‑US ; 47 L/100 km). Although fuel consumption was later reduced by using a heat exchanger , it was never as low as that of contemporary piston engines. In March 1950, Rover showed the JET1 prototype, the first car powered with a gas turbine engine, to the public. JET1, an open two-seat tourer , had
2691-572: A scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge in 1945 to study geology and zoology and obtained a degree in natural sciences . In 1947, he was called up for national service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth . In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan. Jane died in 1997. Robert
2808-530: A separate company and brand in its own right. Rover was bought by Leyland Motors in 1967, which had already acquired Standard-Triumph seven years earlier. Initially, Rover maintained a level of autonomy within the Leyland conglomerate, but by 1978, Leyland – by then British Leyland (BL) – had run into severe financial difficulties and had been nationalized by the British Government . Most of
2925-453: A series on tribal art ( The Tribal Eye , 1975) and another on the voyages of discovery ( The Explorers , 1975). He presented a BBC children's series about cryptozoology entitled Fabulous Animals (1975), which featured mythical creatures such as mermaids and unicorns . Eventually, the BBC signed a co-production deal with Turner Broadcasting and Life on Earth moved into production in 1976. In 1979, he visited China and reported to
3042-427: A strong frame with double front down tubes and a good quality finish, over a thousand Rover motorcycles were sold in 1904. The following year, however, Rover stopped motorcycle production to concentrate on their 'safety bicycle' but in 1910 designer John Greenwood was commissioned to develop a new 3.5 hp 500 cc engine with spring-loaded tappets, a Bosch magneto and an innovative inverted tooth drive chain. It had
3159-443: A ten-part series focussing on extraordinary animal behaviour, and narrated Nature's Great Events , which showed how seasonal changes trigger major natural spectacles. In January 2009, the BBC commissioned Attenborough to provide a series of 20 ten-minute monologues covering the history of nature. Entitled David Attenborough's Life Stories , they were broadcast on Radio 4 on Friday nights. In 2011, Fothergill gave Attenborough
3276-613: A terrible decline. In yours, you could and should witness a wonderful recovery." In 2022, the United Nations Environment Programme recognised Attenborough as a Champion of the Earth "for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration". Attenborough's programmes have often included references to the impact of human society on the natural world. The last episode of The Living Planet , for example, focuses almost entirely on humans' destruction of
3393-552: A top speed of 142 mph (229 km/h). Rover also ran several experimental diesel engine projects in relation to the Land Rover . The 2-litre, 52 horsepower (39 kW) diesel unit designed and built by Rover for its 4x4 had entered production in 1956 and was one of Britain's first modern high-speed automotive diesel engines. Experimental projects were undertaken to improve the engine's power delivery, running qualities, and fuel tolerances. British Army requirements led to
3510-497: A vegetarian diet or to reduce meat consumption to save wildlife , noting that "the planet can't support billions of meat-eaters." Attenborough has linked anthropogenic effects on the environment with human population growth . He has attracted criticism for his views on human overpopulation and human population control . He is a patron of Population Matters , a UK charity advocating for family planning , sustainable consumption and proposed sustainable human population . In
3627-499: A vehicle for colour television. In 1997, he narrated the BBC Wildlife Specials , each focussing on a charismatic species, and screened to mark the Natural History Unit's 40th anniversary. As a writer and narrator, Attenborough continued to collaborate with the BBC Natural History Unit in the new millennium. Alastair Fothergill , a senior producer with whom Attenborough had worked on The Trials of Life and Life in
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3744-484: A young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his collection. He spent much time in the grounds of the university. Aged around 11, he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts , which he offered through his father to supply for 3d each. The source, which he did not reveal at the time, was a pond right next to the department. A year later, his adoptive sister Marianne gave him a piece of amber containing prehistoric creatures; some sixty years later, it would be
3861-591: Is a patron. He later became patron of the World Land Trust. In 2020, he backed a Fauna and Flora International campaign calling for a global moratorium on deep sea mining for its impact on marine life. During the COVID-19 pandemic , Attenborough advocated on behalf of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and its conservation efforts, which have been impacted by the economic fallout from
3978-682: Is a senior lecturer in bioanthropology for the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University in Canberra . Susan is a former primary school headmistress. Attenborough had a pacemaker fitted in June 2013 as well as a double knee replacement in 2015. In September 2013, he commented: "If I was earning my money by hewing coal I would be very glad indeed to stop. But I'm not. I'm swanning round
4095-763: Is currently on display at the London Science Museum . Four further prototypes were built, the P4-based front-engined T2 and rear-engined T2A saloons, the rear-engined four-wheel-drive T3 coupé , and the front-engined front-wheel drive T4 saloon. Rover and the BRM Formula One team joined forces to produce the Rover-BRM , a gas turbine-powered sports prototype that entered the 1963 24 hours of Le Mans , driven by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther . It averaged 107.8 mph (173 km/h) and had
4212-478: Is no comment whatsoever on Terry Wogan's talents." Attenborough has also acknowledged that he sanctioned the wiping of television output during this period to cut costs, including a series by Alan Bennett , which he later regretted. In 1969, Attenborough was promoted to director of programmes, making him responsible for the output of both BBC channels. His tasks, which included agreeing budgets, attending board meetings and firing staff, were now far removed from
4329-537: The Life collection , a comprehensive survey of animal and plant life on Earth. Attenborough was a senior manager at the BBC , having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s. First becoming prominent as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, his filmography as writer, presenter and narrator has spanned eight decades; it includes Natural World , Wildlife on One ,
4446-856: The Planet Earth franchise , The Blue Planet and its sequel . He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black and white, colour , high-definition , 3D and 4K resolution . Over his life he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Narration . While Attenborough's earlier work focused primarily on the wonders of the natural world , his later work has been more vocal in support of environmental causes. He has advocated for restoring planetary biodiversity , limiting population growth , switching to renewable energy , mitigating climate change , reducing meat consumption , and setting aside more areas for natural preservation . On his broadcasting and passion for nature, NPR stated Attenborough "roamed
4563-659: The BBC Natural History Unit was formally established in Bristol . Attenborough was asked to join it, but declined, not wishing to move from London where he and his young family were settled. Instead, he formed his own department, the Travel and Exploration Unit, which allowed him to continue to front Zoo Quest as well as produce other documentaries, notably the Travellers' Tales and Adventure series. In
4680-513: The Centurion and Conqueror , and Solihull became the new centre for vehicles, with production resuming in 1947. This was the year Rover produced the Rover 12 Sports Tourer. 200 cars were built for the export market but all had RHD so many cars stayed in the UK. Solihull would become the home of the Land Rover . Despite the difficulties experienced with the jet engine project, Rover was interested in
4797-467: The First World War . The company began to focus on car production at the end of the war, but Rover still produced motorcycles with 248 cc and 348 cc Rover overhead valve engines and with JAP engines, including a 676 cc V-twin . In 1924 Rover introduced a new lightweight 250 cc motorcycle with unit construction of engine and gearbox. This had lights front and rear as well as
Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition - Misplaced Pages Continue
4914-652: The Second World War , the British government started a rearmament programme, and as part of this, " shadow factories " were built. These were paid for by the government but staffed and run by private companies. Three were run by Rover: one, at Acocks Green , Birmingham, started operation in 1937, a second, larger one, at Solihull , started in 1940 and the third, at Drakelow Tunnels, Kidderminster, started in 1943. All three were employed making aero engines and airframes. The original main works at Helen Street, Coventry,
5031-611: The Welland ), they evaluated the 4 Lombard/Herriot re-designed Rover W.2B/B.26 engines under test at the time of the takeover, and selected the Rover design for their own jet engine development (it became the Rolls-Royce Derwent engine). After the Second World War, the company abandoned Helen Street and bought the two shadow factories. Acocks Green carried on for a while, making Meteor engines for tanks such as
5148-523: The World Land Trust to create a rainforest reserve in Ecuador in memory of Christopher Parsons, the producer of Life on Earth and a personal friend, who had died the previous year. The same year, he helped to launch ARKive , a global project instigated by Parsons to gather together natural history media into a digital library. ARKive is an initiative of Wildscreen , of which Attenborough
5265-515: The 10th project for Attenborough and Atlantic, and saw him returning to a location he first filmed at in 1957. On radio, Attenborough has continued as one of the presenters of BBC Radio 4's Tweet of the Day , which began a second series in September 2014. Attenborough forged a partnership with Sky , working on documentaries for the broadcaster's new 3D network, Sky 3D . Their first collaboration
5382-660: The 2019 IPBES report on the decline of biodiversity . In 2020, Attenborough narrated the documentary film David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet . The film acts as Attenborough's witness statement, reflecting on his career as a naturalist and his hopes for the future. It was released on Netflix on 4 October 2020. Further work for Netflix includes the documentary titled Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet , released on 4 June 2021. In October 2020, Attenborough began filming in Cambridge for The Green Planet . In 2021, Attenborough narrated A Perfect Planet ,
5499-521: The 50th Anniversary of the Expedition, the five surviving members (all except Henry Nott) traveled once more to the Far East and recreated the last leg of their journey, covering the 350 km from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on 4 March 2006. The following day, the five men did the one thing they forgot in 1956 - they followed Rudyard Kipling's instruction to "feed at Raffles " and enjoyed brunch at
5616-615: The Bar and Billiard Room and Singapore Slings at the Long Bar. The 1955 route is now largely impassable, because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the age of 87, Tim Slessor and historian and filmmaker Alex Bescoby in one of the original Land Rovers, "Oxford", planned re-creating the first London to Singapore trip by doing it in reverse. Unfortunately Tim Slessor was taken ill on the day they were due to leave Singapore, 25 August 2019, and
5733-597: The Freezer , the first television series to survey the natural history of Antarctica . Although past normal retirement age, he then embarked on a number of more specialised surveys of the natural world, beginning with plants. They proved a difficult subject for his producers, who had to deliver hours of television featuring what are essentially immobile objects. The result was The Private Life of Plants (1995), which showed plants as dynamic organisms by using time-lapse photography to speed up their growth, and went on to earn
5850-501: The Freezer , was making The Blue Planet (2001), the Unit's first comprehensive series on marine life . He decided not to use an on-screen presenter due to difficulties in speaking to a camera through diving apparatus, but asked Attenborough to narrate the films. The same team reunited for Planet Earth (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television and the first BBC wildlife series to be shot in high definition . In 2009, Attenborough co-wrote and narrated Life ,
5967-606: The Natural History Unit, who came up with a title Life on Earth and returned to Bristol to start planning the series. Attenborough harboured a strong desire to present the series himself, but this would not be possible so long as he remained in a management post. While in charge of BBC Two, Attenborough turned down Terry Wogan 's job application to be a presenter on the channel, stating that there weren't any suitable vacancies. The channel already had an Irish announcer, with Attenborough reflecting in 2016: "To have had two Irishmen presenting on BBC Two would have looked ridiculous. This
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#17327800567886084-493: The Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition . The 2005 50th anniversary edition, published by Signal Books Ltd, also contains a foreword by Sir David Attenborough , who is listed as co-author. The book is the main source of information about the expedition and its fullest account, as the footage and subsequent programmes made with it only cover a small portion of what the six students did and experienced on their long journey. On
6201-459: The Rover company began producing automobiles with the two-seater Rover Eight to the designs of Edmund Lewis, who came from Lawson's Daimler . Lewis left the company to join Deasy in late 1905. He was eventually replaced by Owen Clegg, who joined from Wolseley in 1910 and set about reforming the product range. Short-lived experiments with sleeve valve engines were abandoned, and the 12hp model
6318-539: The Specialist Division, which was the performance-luxury division of BLMC. This was the beginning of the end for the independent Rover Company, as the Solihull-based company's heritage drowned beneath the infamous industrial relations and managerial problems that beset the British motor industry throughout the 1970s. Whilst Jaguar retained much of its independence within the Specialist Division,
6435-410: The Talks (factual broadcasting) department of the BBC's fledgling television service. Attenborough, like most Britons at that time, did not own a television, and he had seen only one programme in his life. He accepted Adams' offer of a three-month training course. In 1952 he joined the BBC full-time. Initially discouraged from appearing on camera because Adams thought his teeth were too big, he became
6552-422: The UK - the first man to make the round trip overland and with no sponsorship. He was also the only man to cross the 'closed' Burmese border twice unaided. See Eric Edis' book The Impossible Takes A Little Longer . First Overland: London-Singapore by Land Rover is the 1957 book recounting the expedition by Tim Slessor, originally published by The Companion Book Club under the title First Overland: The Story of
6669-451: The West for the first time about China's one-child policy. Beginning with Life on Earth in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making, and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series established many of the hallmarks of the BBC's natural history output. By treating his subject seriously and researching
6786-490: The advent of colour television , Attenborough brought snooker to the BBC to show the benefits of the format, as the sport uses coloured balls. The show – Pot Black – was later credited with the boom of the sport into the 1980s. One of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art , to show off the quality of the new UHF colour television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, Civilisation set
6903-437: The arts, entertainment, archaeology, experimental comedy, travel, drama, sport, business, science and natural history all found a place in the weekly schedules. Often, an eclectic mix was offered within a single evening's viewing. Programmes he commissioned included Man Alive , Call My Bluff , Chronicle , Match of the Day , The Old Grey Whistle Test , Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Money Programme . With
7020-579: The assets of the former Rover Company were moved into a new BL subsidiary named Land Rover Ltd whilst the Rover marque itself continued to be used on other BL products which relied largely on Honda engineering. Nevertheless, Rover ultimately became the most prolific brand within BL and gave its name to the entire conglomerate in the form of the Rover Group in 1986, of which MG, Mini and Land Rover remained
7137-408: The blueprint for landmark authored documentaries , which were informally known as "sledgehammer" projects. Others followed, including Jacob Bronowski 's The Ascent of Man (also commissioned by Attenborough), and Alistair Cooke 's America . Attenborough thought that the story of evolution would be a natural subject for such a series. He shared his idea with Christopher Parsons , a producer at
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#17327800567887254-613: The board near the end of the calendar year 1931, his work done. Building on successes such as beating the Blue Train for the first time in 1930 in the Blue Train Races , the Wilks Brothers established Rover as a company with several European royal, aristocratic, and governmental warrants , and upper-middle-class and star clients. In the late 1930s, in anticipation of the potential hostilities that would become
7371-434: The business of filming programmes. When Attenborough's name was being suggested as a candidate for the position of Director-General of the BBC in 1972, he phoned his brother Richard to confess that he had no appetite for the job. Early the following year, he left his post to return to full-time programme-making, leaving him free to write and present the planned natural history epic. After his resignation, Attenborough became
7488-544: The business was taken over by entrepreneur H. J. Lawson . The company developed and produced the Rover Imperial motorcycle in November 1902. This was a 3.5 hp diamond-framed motorcycle with the engine in the centre and 'springer' front forks which was ahead of its time. This first Rover motorcycle had innovative features such as a spray carburettor, bottom-bracket engine and mechanically operated valves. With
7605-533: The corporation announced a trio of new one-off Attenborough documentaries as part of a raft of new natural history programmes. "Attenborough's Paradise Birds" and "Attenborough's Big Birds" was shown on BBC Two and "Waking Giants", which follows the discovery of giant dinosaur bones in South America, aired on BBC One. The BBC also commissioned Atlantic Productions to make a three-part, Attenborough-fronted series Great Barrier Reef in 2015. The series marked
7722-502: The cycle trade), who began by manufacturing sewing machines and switched to bicycles in 1869. The first product of the new company was a tricycle manufactured by Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry , England, in 1883. In the early 1880s bicycles were the relatively dangerous penny-farthings and high-wheel tricycles. J.K. Starley made history in 1885 by producing the Rover safety bicycle —a rear-wheel-drive, chain -driven cycle with two similar-sized wheels, making it more stable than
7839-459: The delicate balance between them be destroyed. The idea that mankind was endangering nature by recklessly despoiling and plundering its riches was unheard of at the time, but it is one that has remained part of Dave's own credo to this day." In 1999, Richard directed a biopic of Belaney entitled Grey Owl . Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester. He won
7956-497: The development of a multifuel version of the 2.25-litre variant of the engine in 1962, which could run on petrol, diesel , Jet-A , or kerosene . However, the engine's power output when running on low-grade fuel was too low for the Army's uses. Rover developed a highly advanced (for the time) turbodiesel version of its engine in the mid-1960s to power its experimental '129-inch' heavy duty Land Rover designs. This 2.5-litre engine used
8073-432: The development of the gas turbine engine to power vehicles. In 1945, Rover hired engineers Frank Bell and Spen King away from Rolls-Royce to assist Maurice Wilks in the development of automotive gas turbines. By 1949, the team developed a turbine that ran at 55,000 rpm, produced more than 100 horsepower (75 kW), and could run on petrol, paraffin , or diesel oil. Rover's early turbine engines consumed fuel at
8190-483: The dies and stamping equipment for making the car's body panels at Pressed Steel when ordered to stop work. Rover continued to develop its '100-inch Station Wagon', which became the ground-breaking Range Rover , launched in 1970. This also used the ex-Buick V8 engine as well as the P6's innovative safety-frame body structure design and features such as permanent four-wheel drive and all-round disc brakes . The Range Rover
8307-547: The early 1960s, Attenborough resigned from the permanent staff of the BBC to study for a postgraduate degree in social anthropology at the London School of Economics , interweaving his study with further filming. However, he accepted an invitation to return to the BBC as controller of BBC Two before he could finish the degree. Attenborough became Controller of BBC Two in March 1965, succeeding Michael Peacock . He had
8424-688: The engine positioned behind the seats, air intake grilles on either side of the car, and exhaust outlets on the top of the tail. During tests, the car reached a top speed of 88 mph (142 km/h). After being shown in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1950, JET1 was further developed, and was subjected to speed trials on the Jabbeke highway in Belgium in June 1952, where it exceeded 150 miles per hour (240 km/h). JET1
8541-518: The environment and ways that it could be stopped or reversed. Despite this, he has been criticised for not giving enough prominence to environmental messages. In 2018 while promoting Dynasties , he said that repeated messages on threats to wildlife in programming could be a "turn-off" to viewers. Some environmentalists feel that programmes like Attenborough's give a false picture of idyllic wilderness and do not do enough to acknowledge that such areas are increasingly encroached upon by humans. However,
8658-519: The expedition were as follows: After setting off from Hyde Park in London, on 1 September 1955, the expedition was flown over to the European continent and from there continued through France , Monaco , Germany , Austria , Yugoslavia , Greece , Turkey , Syria , Iraq , Iran , Afghanistan , Pakistan , India , Nepal , Burma , Thailand , Malaya and Singapore . Arriving on 6 March 1956,
8775-460: The first Advanced Passenger Train . The 1950s and '60s were fruitful years for the company. The Land Rover became a runaway success (despite Rover's reputation for making upmarket saloons, the utilitarian Land Rover was actually the company's biggest seller throughout the 1950s, '60s, and '70s), as well as the P5 and P6 saloons equipped with a 3.5L (215ci) aluminium V8 (the design and tooling of which
8892-542: The first time, and in 2005, Life in the Undergrowth introduced audiences to the world of invertebrates . At this point, Attenborough realised that he had spent 20 years unconsciously assembling a collection of programmes on all the major groups of terrestrial animals and plants – only reptiles and amphibians were missing. When Life in Cold Blood was broadcast in 2008, he had the satisfaction of completing
9009-519: The focus of his programme The Amber Time Machine . In 1936, Attenborough and his brother Richard attended a lecture by Grey Owl (Archibald Belaney) at De Montfort Hall , Leicester , and were influenced by his advocacy of conservation. According to Richard, David was "bowled over by the man's determination to save the beaver, by his profound knowledge of the flora and fauna of the Canadian wilderness and by his warnings of ecological disaster should
9126-463: The former Rover and Triumph organisations worked on a series of shared projects throughout the 1970s - but the only Rover product to be launched was the Rover SD1 (Specialist Division No.1) in 1976, and was the final car that can be thought of as coming from the original Rover Company lineage, being designed by ex-Rover engineers and was initially produced at Solihull. In 1978, British Leyland created
9243-580: The globe and shared his discoveries and enthusiasms with his patented semi-whisper way of narrating". He is widely considered a national treasure in the UK, although he himself does not embrace the term. David Frederick Attenborough was born on 8 May 1926 in Isleworth , Middlesex , and grew up in College House on the campus of the University of Leicester , where his father, Frederick ,
9360-496: The historic Lode Lane site. Video of early Rover motorcycle manufacture: David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough ( / ˈ æ t ən b ə r ə / ; born 8 May 1926) is a British broadcaster, biologist, natural historian, and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit , the nine nature documentary series forming
9477-430: The increased urgency of environmental messaging in films such as Extinction: The Facts , which depicts the continuing sixth mass extinction , Climate Change – The Facts and A Life on Our Planet from 2019 and 2020 received praise. In Seven Worlds, One Planet , Attenborough discusses the devastating impact that deforestation is having on the planet and the species. In 2005 and 2006, Attenborough backed
9594-513: The issue until 2006. Attenborough attended and spoke at COP26 as the "People's Advocate" for the event, and urged world leaders to act to reduce emissions. He supported Glyndebourne in their successful application to obtain planning permission for a wind turbine in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , and gave evidence at the planning inquiry arguing in favour of the proposal. In his 2020 documentary film David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet , Attenborough advocates for people to adopt
9711-467: The journey took six months and six days, over 18,000 miles. The next joint expedition was the 1957-8 Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America , on which at least two team members from the Singapore journey took part: Adrian Cowell and Nigel Newbery. Between 1957 and 1959, Eric Edis led a sixteen-person team on an overland expedition from London to Singapore and then on to Australia and back to
9828-401: The late 1950s there was no home recording technology like VHS , so once broadcast, the films faded from view and have only been seen occasionally since. Recently they have been re-mastered and edited, with a commentary by the cameraman Antony Barrington-Brown and Tim Slessor, and interviews with Nigel Newbery, Pat Murphy, Adrian Cowell and Sir David Attenborough. The DVD also has an 'extra' about
9945-465: The latest discoveries, Attenborough and his production team gained the trust of scientists, who responded by allowing him to feature their subjects in his programmes. Innovation was another factor in Life on Earth 's success: new film-making techniques were devised to get the shots Attenborough wanted, with a focus on events and animals that were up till then unfilmed. International air travel enabled
10062-610: The making of the original films and the rescuing of the footage. Rover Company The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company originally founded in 1878, beginning car manufacturing in 1904. It primarily operated from its base in Solihull , Warwickshire . Rover also manufactured the Land Rover series from 1948 onwards, and created the Range Rover in 1970, which went on to become its most successful and profitable product. Land Rover eventually became
10179-479: The name of the company. The word ровер ( rover ) is also used in many parts of western Ukraine. Rover started building motorcycles then cars using their Viking longship badge from 1904. In 1899 John Starley imported some of the early Peugeot motorcycles from France in for experimental development. His first project was to fit an engine to one of his Rover bicycles. Starley died early in October 1901 aged 46 and
10296-634: The natural history genre. He wrote and presented a series on man's influence on the natural history of the Mediterranean Basin , The First Eden , in 1987. Two years later, he demonstrated his passion for fossils in Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives . In 1990, he worked on the BBC's Prisoners of Conscience series where he highlighted the case of the Sudanese poet Mahjoub Sharif . Attenborough narrated every episode of Wildlife on One ,
10413-429: The naturalist Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage , aposematism and courtship displays . Through this programme, Attenborough met Jack Lester, the curator of the zoo's reptile house, and they decided to make a series about an animal-collecting expedition. The result was Zoo Quest , first broadcast in 1954, where Attenborough became the presenter at short notice due to Lester being taken ill. In 1957,
10530-579: The pandemic. In 2020, Attenborough was named as a member of the Earthshot prize Council, an initiative of Prince William to find solutions to environmental issues. He is a patron of the Friends of Richmond Park and serves on the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine . Attenborough was initially sceptical about the human influence on climate change , and stated that a 2004 lecture finally convinced him humans were responsible. He remained silent on
10647-588: The previous high-wheel designs. Cycling Magazine said the Rover had "set the pattern to the world"; the phrase was used in their advertising for many years. Starley's Rover is usually described by historians as the first recognisably modern bicycle. In 1889, the company became J.K. Starley & Co. Ltd., and in the late 1890s, the Rover Cycle Company Ltd. The words for "bicycle" in Polish ( rower ) and Belarusian (ро́вар, rovar ) are derived from
10764-413: The series to be devised so that Attenborough visited several locations around the globe in each episode, sometimes even changing continents in one sequence. Although appearing as the on-screen presenter, he restricted his time on camera to give more time to his subjects. Five years after the success of Life on Earth , the BBC released The Living Planet . This time, Attenborough built his series around
10881-481: The set, brought together in a DVD encyclopaedia called Life on Land . He commented: "The evolutionary history is finished. The endeavour is complete. If you'd asked me 20 years ago whether we'd be attempting such a mammoth task, I'd have said 'Don't be ridiculous!' These programmes tell a particular story and I'm sure others will come along and tell it much better than I did, but I do hope that if people watch it in 50 years' time, it will still have something to say about
10998-720: The team to develop the engine, improving the performance over the original Whittle design. The first test engines to the W.2B design were built in Bankfield Shed, a former cotton mill in Barnoldswick , Lancashire which Rover moved into in June 1941 (along with Waterloo Mill in Clitheroe ). Testing commenced towards the end of October 1941. A need for greater expertise within the project, along with difficult relations between Rover management and Frank Whittle (not least because Rover under AM approval had secretly designed
11115-450: The theme of ecology, the adaptations of living things to their environment. It was another critical and commercial success, generating huge international sales for the BBC. In 1990, The Trials of Life completed the original Life trilogy, looking at animal behaviour through the different stages of life. In the 1990s, Attenborough continued to use the "Life" title for a succession of authored documentaries. In 1993, he presented Life in
11232-427: The third series showing in 2015. He has also narrated A majestic celebration: Wild Karnataka , India's first blue-chip natural history film, directed by Kalyan Varma and Amoghavarsha . Blue Planet II was broadcast in 2017, with Attenborough returning as presenter. The series was critically acclaimed and gained the highest UK viewing figure for 2017 of 14.1 million. The series is thought to have triggered
11349-560: The turn of the millennium, Attenborough's authored documentaries were adopting a more overtly environmentalist stance. In State of the Planet (2000), he used the latest scientific evidence and interviews with leading scientists and conservationists to assess the impact of human activities on the natural world. He later turned to the issues of global warming ( The Truth about Climate Change , 2006) and human population growth ( How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? , 2009). He contributed
11466-480: The very light Weymann bodies that went suddenly out of fashion with the demand for shiny coachwork and more curved body shapes. Weymann bodies remained in the factory catalogue until 1933. Frank Searle and Spencer Wilks set about reorganising the company and moving it upmarket to cater for people who wanted something "superior" to Fords and Austins . In 1930 Spencer Wilks was joined by his brother, Maurice, who had also been at Hillman as chief engineer. Spencer Wilks
11583-416: The world looking at the most fabulously interesting things. Such good fortune." After leaving the navy, Attenborough took a position editing children's science textbooks for a publishing company. He soon became disillusioned with the work and in 1950 applied for a job as a radio talk producer with the BBC . Although he was rejected for this job, his CV later attracted the interest of Mary Adams , head of
11700-483: The world we live in." However, in 2010 Attenborough asserted that his First Life – dealing with evolutionary history before Life on Earth – should be included within the "Life" series. In the documentary Attenborough's Journey , he stated, "This series, to a degree which I really didn't fully appreciate until I started working on it, really completes the set." Alongside the Life series, Attenborough continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in
11817-627: Was Flying Monsters 3D , a film about pterosaurs which debuted on Christmas Day of 2010. A second film, The Penguin King 3D , followed a year later. His next 3D project, Conquest of the Skies , made by the team behind the BAFTA award-winning David Attenborough's Natural History Museum Alive , aired on Sky 3D during Christmas 2014. Attenborough has narrated three series of David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities for UKTV channel Watch , with
11934-626: Was principal . He is the middle of three sons; his elder brother, Richard , became an actor and director, and his younger brother, John , was an executive at the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo . During the Second World War , through a British volunteer network known as the Refugee Children's Movement , his parents also fostered two Jewish refugee girls from Germany. Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils , stones, and natural specimens. He received encouragement when
12051-560: Was 1 April 1943, though there was a considerable overlap, and several key Rover staff such as Adrian Lombard and John Herriot, the latter being at Rover on secondment from the Air Inspection Department (AID) of the AM, moved to Rolls-Royce. In exchange for the jet engine project and its facilities, Rover was given the contract and production equipment to make Meteor tank engines, which continued until 1964. The Meteor engine
12168-485: Was also working on the P8 project which aimed to replace the existing P5 large saloon with a modern design similar in concept to a scaled-up P6. When Leyland Motors joined with British Motor Holdings and Rover and Jaguar became corporate partners these projects were cancelled to prevent internal competition with Jaguar products. The P8 in particular was cancelled in a very late stage of preparation- Rover had already ordered
12285-483: Was appointed managing director to supervise recovery. Searle was by training a locomotive engineer with motor industry experience at Daimler and, most recently, had been managing director of Imperial Airways . On his recommendation Spencer Wilks was brought in from Hillman as general manager and appointed to the board in 1929. That year, Searle split Midland Light Car Bodies from Rover in an effort to save money and instructed Robert Boyle and Maurice Wilks to design
12402-444: Was dictated by developments in camera technology. For The Life of Mammals (2002), low-light and infrared cameras were deployed to reveal the behaviour of nocturnal mammals. The series contains a number of memorable two shots of Attenborough and his subjects, which included chimpanzees, a blue whale and a grizzly bear . Advances in macro photography made it possible to capture the natural behaviour of very small creatures for
12519-650: Was initially designed as a utility vehicle which could offer the off-road capability of the Land Rover, but in a more refined and car-like package. In 1967, Rover became part of the Leyland Motor Corporation (LMC), which already owned Triumph . The next year, LMC merged with British Motor Holdings (BMH) to become the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). Rover was grouped together with Triumph and Jaguar in
12636-406: Was inspired by the earlier 1954 Oxford and Cambridge Trans-Africa Expedition , developed by Adrian Cowell . All members were from either University of Cambridge or University of Oxford , and all had just finished their degrees when they set out on the expedition, with the exception of Nigel Newbery, who had one year left, and was the only Oxford student. The expedition members and their roles on
12753-452: Was introduced in 1912. This car was so successful that all other cars were dropped, and for a while, Rover pursued a "one model" policy. Clegg left in 1912 to join the French subsidiary of Darracq and Company London . During the First World War , they made motorcycles, lorries to Maudslay designs, and, not having a suitable one of their own, ambulances to a Sunbeam design. The business
12870-515: Was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture on The Language of Animals . After his work on Eastwards with Attenborough , he began to work on the scripts for Life on Earth . Due to the scale of his ambition, the BBC decided to partner with an American network to secure the necessary funding. While the negotiations were proceeding, he worked on a number of other television projects. He presented
12987-431: Was launched in 1964, but had struggled to capture the public's imagination. When Attenborough arrived as controller, he quickly abolished the channel's quirky kangaroo mascot and shook up the schedule. With a mission to make BBC Two's output diverse and different from that offered by other networks, he began to establish a portfolio of programmes that defined the channel's identity for decades to come. Under his tenure, music,
13104-499: Was not able to participate, but his grandson, Nat George, stepped in and took his place, arriving in London 111 days later on 14 December 2019. These team build with Multi international Team, Larry Leong from Singapore as Safety officer, Marcus Alleander from Uk as Manager Expedition, Dr Silverius Purba from Indonesia as doctor, Mechanic, main driver for Oxford, David Israeli from USA as videographer, Leopold from France as Videographer, TB from France as Social Media expert. Tim Bescoby wrote
13221-404: Was not very successful during the 1920s and did not pay a dividend from 1923 until the mid-1930s. In December 1928 the chairman of Rover advised shareholders that the accumulation of the substantial losses of the 1923–1928 years together with the costs of that year's reorganisation must be recognised by a reduction of 60 per cent in the value of capital of the company. During 1928 Frank Searle
13338-618: Was purchased from Buick ) and pioneering research into gas turbine-powered vehicles. As the '60s drew to a close Rover was working on a number of innovative projects. Having purchased the Alvis company in 1965 Rover was working on a V8-powered supercar to sell under the Alvis name. The prototype, called the P6BS, was completed and the finalised styling and engineering proposal, the P9, was drawn up. Rover
13455-783: Was severely damaged by bombing in 1940 and 1941 and never regained full production. In early 1940, Rover was approached by Frank Whittle to do work for Whittle's company, Power Jets . This led to a proposal from Power Jets in which Rover would put forward £50,000 of capital in exchange for shares in Power Jets. Rover contacted the Air Ministry (AM) regarding the proposal, which ultimately led to an arrangement between Rover and former Power Jets contractor British Thomson-Houston (BTH) to develop and produce Whittle's jet engine. The Air Ministry had left Whittle and Power Jets out of these negotiations. Rover chief engineer Maurice Wilks led
13572-483: Was superseded for new tanks in 1962, and as Rover wanted more manufacturing capacity for the Land Rover they transferred the manufacture of Meteor spare parts for the British and other governments back to Rolls-Royce at Shrewsbury. Although Rolls-Royce under Stanley Hooker were soon to be able to start producing the Whittle-designed W.2B/23 engine (known within Rover as the B.23, later named by Rolls-Royce
13689-471: Was to stay with the company until 1962, and his brother until 1963. The company showed profits in the 1929 and 1930 years but with the economic downturn in 1931 Rover reported a loss of £77,529. 1932 produced a loss of £103,000 but a turn around following yet more reorganisation resulted in a profit of £46,000 in 1933. The new assembly operations in Australia and New Zealand were closed. Frank Searle left
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