‘She dedicated her life to serving the nation’: Sir David Attenborough shares tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

Sir David Attenborough has offered his personal tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, saying “the whole nation is bereaved” over her death.

The veteran broadcaster and envioronmentalist has a decades-long history with the royal family, including the Queen with whom he shared a strong rapport.

Attenborough, who was first knighted by the monarch in 1985, said she had “an extraordinary ability to put you at your ease”.

“If there was a technical hitch, she wanted to know what it was, and if it had a funny side, she was quick to see the joke,” he said in a statement to the Press Association.

“Yet not for one second could you forget that you were in the presence of someone who had willingly accepted enormous responsibility and dedicated her life to serving the nation - that you were, in short, in the presence of royalty. The whole nation is bereaved.”

The TV figure and Queen celebrated their 90th birthdays just weeks apart in 2016.

Attenborough’s milestone was marked with a special BBC One programme, Attenborough At 90, which included a tribute from Prince William, who said at the time: “There is something very calming and sort of warm about his programmes. There is something very reassuring about seeing David Attenborough on BBC One doing his documentaries. It is part of the national psyche now.

“He’s a national treasure and it is very fitting that he is having his 90th birthday only a few weeks after the Queen. They are two incredible national treasures who have done so much over the years.”

In 2018, Attenborough took part in qa documentary programme that followed the progress of the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project, a project to create a network of protected Commonwealth forests around the globe in tribute to the Queen’s service to the family of nations.

The ITV documentary, The Queen’s Green Planet, showed viewers an informal conversation taking place between the TV presenter and the head of state, filmed in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

Attenborough also produced the Queen’s annual televised Christmas Day address during the Eighties and Nineties, and featured in a segment of the BBC’s Platinum Party at the Palace celebrating the Queen’s history 70-year reign.

In 2020, he was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael And St George for services to television broadcasting and to conservation in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.

Countless other famous figures across TV, music, film literature and the arts have also paid tribute to the Queen, from Mick Jagger and Elton John to actors Helen Mirren and Daniel Craig.

Follow the latest updates as the world pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II

Additional reporting by Press Association