How Sir David Attenborough built 'Green Hollywood'

Silverback Films

As Sir David Attenborough marks his centenary, one achievement is often overlooked: how the world's famously soft-spoken naturalist helped create an industry employing thousands and earning millions, centred on Bristol.

The city has become "the beating heart of the wildlife film industry", according to Lucie Muir, CEO of the Wildscreen Awards and Festival. Bristol produces 80% of the high quality natural history television in the world.

"Without Sir David," says his long time director Keith Scholey, "the wildlife film industry in Bristol would be a shadow of what it is."

So how did David Attenborough create not just landmark programmes, but an entire industry?

Silverback Films

Scholey first met Attenborough in 1981 as a Bristol University zoology graduate hoping to break into television.

He went on to direct Planet Earth and The Private Life of Plants, before co‑founding Silverback Films in 2012 with another of Attenborough's veteran producers, Alastair Fothergill.

"He made it famous, he made it internationally valuable," Scholey says.

"And all of us who went on to have careers in natural history in this city benefited from the genius of this man," Scholey adds.

Wildscreen

The Wildscreen Festival - often called the "Oscars of Wildlife" - brings the global industry to Bristol every two years.

"Bristol is seen as the kind of 'Green Hollywood'," says Muir.

"If you watch National Geographic, or the BBC, Disney, Apple, Netflix - the vast majority of their natural history productions are made in Bristol."

And yet to sell programmes globally, Bristol filmmakers did not have to travel to Hollywood.

"We had the big players coming to us," Scholey says.

"Netflix, Apple TV, and National Geographic… because it was known as a centre of excellence.

"We have built a concentration of talent in Bristol that is quite unique."

Building Blockbusters

Attenborough's first influence was not from in front of the camera, but behind a desk.

As controller of BBC2 he created the concept of ambitious landmark programmes, then left management to become a presenter, working with the BBC's Natural History Unit (NHU) in Bristol.

The result was Life on Earth, filmed around the world and watched by 15 million people in the UK and 500 million globally.

"It was extraordinary," says Scholey. "David would be in South America, then Australia, showing things people had never seen… underwater life, bats, reptiles - everything."

"He was the first person to make international wildlife popular," Scholey adds.

Global storytelling - and global finance

The series also transformed funding. A co‑production deal with Warner Brothers brought American investment into the genre.

Before Life on Earth, the NHU largely filmed British wildlife on small budgets. Attenborough's approach was global - and needed big money.

"That was the first time money from America had been invested in a natural history series," Scholey recalls.

"And we never looked back."

Filmed in more than 100 locations, Life on Earth cost over £1m - a huge budget in 1979.

It was sold to more than 100 territories and confirmed wildlife films could be global blockbusters.

Soon broadcasters like National Geographic, and later Netflix, Apple and Disney, turned to Bristol for expertise.

"Filming wildlife is expensive," says Scholey.

"You have to go all over the world… International finance has been a huge part of it - but wow, we've had quite a ride!"

Silverback Films

Cutting edge technology

Attenborough also pushed technical innovation. In Life on Earth, his team filmed bats in a wind-tunnel. State of the art film stock brought sharper, colour images to audiences.

Bristol's Natural History Unit became famous for using - often inventing - the latest camera techniques.

Muir says Sir David "loves new technology, he loves new camera kit, he's always pushed everyone to make the best, newest discoveries possible".

He remains the only person to win BAFTA awards across black-and-white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K formats.

Silverback Films

Over 50 years of high quality filmmaking, Bristol has built a full production ecosystem - from filming to editing, sound design and specialist post-production.

Scholey explains: "We have people who can colour-grade a natural history film better than anywhere else in the world, people who can track-lay wildlife sound, edit animal sequences, they don't exist anywhere else in the world."

'A bit of David in all of us'

Despite never living in the city, Attenborough's impact on Bristol is profound.

There are now around 15 wildlife production companies alongside the BBC NHU, employing about 1,000 people. The University of the West of England estimates the sector is worth around £100m - about a third of Bristol's TV industry

When Scholey was interviewed to run the BBC's NHU in 1998, he was asked: 'How will you replace David Attenborough?'

Nearly 30 years on, that question remains.

Scholey points out the NHU has developed numerous other wildlife presenters, but Attenborough is "a one-off, you'll never replicate him".

For Muir, Attenborough's legacy "will live on forever, within the people making the films, the conservationists, the scientists, he's inspired so many people."

"There's a bit of David in all of us," she smiles.

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