Mischievous and glorious, David Attenborough brings his lifelong sense of wonder to the city’s wildlife, from foxes to peregrine falcons, in this exquisite and endlessly moving special
T
he journey begins in a row of allotments lodged deep between two north London streets. It’s 8.30pm and David Attenborough – 99 years young, in customary short-sleeved blue shirt and chinos – is on the hunt for Tottenham’s most elusive resident. He gets settled on a camping chair. Waits. Emits a tiny rhapsodic gasp as the creature in question appears. It’s a … fox.
“It’s still a huge thrill to see one suddenly emerging from the bushes,” he whispers to camera of a sight so bog-standard most Londoners wouldn’t bother looking up from their phones. “A totally wild creature!” Attenborough holds out a hand. Murmurs a delighted “hello”. The fox comes within a few inches of the greatest natural historian and broadcaster this country has ever produced, then slinks off into the night. What an encounter! And if you think that’s exhilarating wait until you see his reaction to a pigeon getting on the tube.
For those at the precarious stage of the holidays where a poultice for the heart is urgently required, I give you Wild London. An exquisitely cheerful, beautifully produced, unexpectedly moving special, captured over Attenborough’s centennial year, in which he seeks out the wildlife of the capital and we discover that the secret to a good life isn’t actually a parasite cleanse or a facial for your vagina – it’s appreciating what’s on your own doorstep. Which in Attenborough’s case is a megacity home to 9 million people, 2.6m cars, 607 sq miles of concrete, asphalt and steel, and more wild animals than seem possible in such unnatural circumstances. Plus, of course, one vanishingly rare David Attenborough. “Throughout my life I’ve had the good fortune to travel the world witnessing many spectacles,” he says in a black cab home to Richmond. “But this is the place to which I’ve always returned.”
