WILD ISLES DAVID’S STAIRWAY TO HAVEN
Defibrillator and a doc on TV standby
SIR David Attenborough had a doctor and defibrillator on standby during a tough climb to a bird sanctuary on his new show.
The 96-year-old also worked to improve his fitness levels ahead of making the BBC One series Wild Isles, which sees him trek across Britain.
David – fitted with a pacemaker in 2013 – had to climb 87 steep steps on Skomer Island off Pembrokeshire – and practised on his stairs at home in Richmond, south-west London.
Executive producer Alastair Fothergill said: “I had to get David up to the top. We took a doctor and a defibrillator just in case.”
He added: “I told his daughter Susie all about it and he practised on the stairs at home.
“He’s not really doing much outside of Richmond now, but he really enjoyed the trips he did with us this last summer.”
Dad-of-two Sir David was admitted to hospital for urgent heart surgery eight years which led to the pacemaker to help his heart beat.
It forced him to cancel a soldout speaking tour of Australia and he has long suffered high blood pressure which can spark heart attacks and strokes. When asked last year what most scared him, the naturalist – who has got up close to the world’s most fearsome predators during his long career – said “old age”.
He added the fear of “becoming helpless and gaga” was his biggest torment.
And when asked if he was scared of dying, he said: “No, not the process.
“I’d just like it to be a quick process, thanks very much.”
Wild Isles was five years in the making and is split into five episodes featuring key British habitats – woodlands, grasslands, freshwater and marine.