Sir David Attenborough’s BBC special Wild London explores how peregrine falcons, urban foxes and pigeons thrive in the capital
David Attenborough (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Passion Planet Ltd / Gavin Thurston)
Cradled in the palms of the world’s most renowned naturalist, a baby peregrine falcon gazes upwards and appears utterly content in Sir David Attenborough’s presence. This delightful tale is merely one of numerous stories featured in Sir David’s one-off BBC special Wild London, which explores the wildlife flourishing throughout England’s capital.
Throughout the programme, audiences will witness an enthusiastic Sir David encountering various creatures up close, from the downy falcon chick, being ringed for its safety, to a diminutive harvest mouse and a fox family.
Additionally, there’s a gull that hunts pigeons by drowning, foxes stashing chicken bones in car bonnets, herds of deer running through suburbia and pigeons travelling on the tube.
Sir David, who celebrates his 100th birthday in May, has dedicated his life to exploring the planet, but this hour-long special finds him captivated by the wildlife that, as a resident of London for the past 75 years, exists just beyond his front door. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter
David Attenborough (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Passion Planet Ltd/Gavin Thurston)
Regarding his decision to settle in Richmond, he remarks: “A wilder city is a healthier city. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
Director Joe Loncraine reveals they had an abundance of stories to select from – and that Sir David was enthusiastic about participating from the instant they presented him with the concept. “His memories of London informed what we did and where we took him,” Joe explains.
“He’s got peregrine falcons nesting near his house and he says on camera that he used to have a hedgehog in his garden and he doesn’t anymore, which he’s really sad about.”
The documentary also features footage of Sir David lying on the ground in somebody’s garden as he investigates the brilliant Hedgehog Highway concept – gaps cut into fences which allow the prickly animals to move around freely and locate a partner, reports the Mirror.
David Attenborough (Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/Passion Planet Ltd/Joe Loncraine)
Joe and executive producer Gaby Bastyra collaborated extensively with David Mooney, chief executive of the London Wildlife Trust, to identify suitable stories for the production and for Sir David’s involvement. “You talk to him about stuff that he’d be interested in, and you can tell straight away the ones he likes, the ones he doesn’t,” Joe reveals.
The film tracks several peregrine falcons as they build nests at the Houses of Parliament and instruct their offspring in flying and hunting far above street level. Gaby notes Sir David was delighted when handling the chick during its ringing for tracking purposes.
“He’d never held or met a Peregrine chick before, and he was genuinely enthralled and loved the moment of it.”
(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Passion Planet Ltd / Gavin Thurston)
Mooney remarked that the young bird appeared to recognise it was being cradled by the iconic BBC presenter. “We do a lot of bird ringing across London and I’ve never seen, in 20 years, a bird of any kind look up like that – he knew it was David Attenborough. Of course he did!” Joe explained that capturing footage of the falcons fledging and instructing their young to take flight had proved challenging.
“It’s one of those things you really don’t know that it’s happening above your head in Hackney or Charing Cross Hospital or the Houses of Parliament or London Met University. Finding the right vantage point is hard. You’ve got to be there at 4.30am, sometimes earlier.”
Another remarkable story also involves birdlife – featuring a solitary gull in Hyde Park which has developed the skill of hunting pigeons by pulling them into the Serpentine and drowning them.
Whilst documenting this extraordinary behaviour, the crew from independent production company Passion Planet discovered that the local coots were also playing a part – as rescuers. “I don’t know whether or not they were deliberately trying to save that pigeon,” Joe reveals.
“But the fact that they do that is quite amazing. That was a real shock and a bonus.”
Reports suggest that another gull is attempting to mimic this behaviour but has yet to make a successful kill. “London’s pigeons might need to watch out,” Joe cautions.
Pigeons also appear in another story, proposed for the programme by Sir David himself. Joe was raised in West London but had never witnessed a pigeon on the Hammersmith and City line.
“And then David Attenborough told me about seeing pigeons on the way to Ally Pally when he worked at the BBC,” he notes. “So they’d been doing that for 70 years.”
Viewers will witness the birds nonchalantly stepping onto the tube, allowing the doors to close behind them, and then disembarking a few stops later.
When it came to filming them, patience was key. “You can’t usher them on because it’s not every pigeon, it’s just some of them.”
The fox family residing in an allotment in the heart of Tottenham are the most adorable, fluffy creatures you could ever hope to encounter. The cameras capture some novel behaviour.
“I was completely captivated to know that foxes stash chicken bones on cars, like storage units,” Mooney reveals. “I was really taken aback by the takeaways.”
Gaby expressed her amazement at how comfortable the foxes were with the film crew, and Sir David, getting close to them.
(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC / Passion Planet Ltd / Gavin Thurston)
She said: “It was seeing them with different eyes. There’s this amazing wild dog living amongst us.”
Another remarkable sight is herds of deer roaming around in Harold Hill, East London. They dodge traffic and trample over lawns, helping themselves to prized blooms along the way.
“I think that the garden owner who was fast asleep and had their roses devoured would be pretty surprised,” Joe chuckles.
Mooney expresses his hope that the BBC special will inspire viewers to reconnect with wildlife in urban spaces. “London is one of the greenest cities in the world, there’s so much nature around us.
“We just really want people to stop and take a look at it. There’s over 1600 sites of importance for nature conservation in London. To have so many eyeballs now watching this story celebrating London’s wildlife, recovering our lost connections with the natural world – it feels like a kind of crescendo of so many years worth of work. Finally, people noticing the value of London and its ecology.”
