Who can replace David Attenborough when he retires

LONDON — He has been delighting viewers for decades, but it appears that David Attenborough’s style of presenting wildlife programmes has fallen out of favour at the BBC. The head of the corporation’s Natural History unit, Wendy Darke, has said that when Attenborough, 88, eventually retires it will not look to “fill his shoes”.

Instead, Darke announced that the unit will seek “diverse”, populist presenters on the same wavelength as the audience. Its newest recruit, Lucy Cooke, who hosts the show Talk To The Animals, has said she aims to bring entertainment and humour to her role, in an attempt to convey her message to as wide an audience as possible.

Cooke, who said she “always thought that you could bring a bit more entertainment to natural history”, added that she intended to use humour to “sugar-coat the bitter pill” of her conservation message.

Cooke told reporters: “I’m all about being popular and getting your story out to the widest possible audience. I’m a committed conservationist, but I think that people can become a bit jaded about hearing the same story.

“Humour can be the sugar coating around the bitter pill of a message. I don’t think it means that you’re dumbing things down.”

Attenborough has previously acknowledged the change in broadcasting style, saying earlier this year: “I suspect that the age of the presenter is coming to an end.”

He said the important element was “just the film and only the film” and praised the cameramen who make the programmes as more deserving of his legacy. Cooke said Attenborough had been an inspiration to her, changing her life with his wildlife broadcasts.

Darke confirmed that the corporation was not looking for one person to be the “new David Attenborough”. “Sir David Attenborough is a legend and an irreplaceable one-off,” she said. “He is a storyteller without match, so we would never attempt to fill his shoes.

“However, the wildlife film-making landscape has changed immeasurably. There is now a much greater range and variety of output and I can’t see one person ever dominating natural history programmes in the way that David has done so brilliantly for the last 60 years.”

Attenborough is best-loved for his work on series such as Life On Earth, The Life Of Mammals and Planet Earth. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH