viewers were up in arms when they discovered veteran presenter had been replaced by a star for new nature programme The Americas.
The show comes from the same producers as Attenborough’s famed Blue Planet and Planet Earth series – as well as the ’s Asia and Africa, which The Americas is thought to be a spiritual sequel to, and which Attenborough is famed for narrating. instead took over narrating the new show, as David, 98, took a step back. However, in November 2024 the star confessed he has certain conditions that must be met before he’ll consider retirement.
The star said the prospect of ending his TV career fills him with “dread”, admitting he would only consider retiring if he lost significant mobility or started producing “substandard work”. He said: “I dread not working, although there are things I can do without running up steps six times – books to be written, things I never got round to.”
David Attenborough has conditions for retirement (Image: Getty)
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He added: “But at the moment it seems to be all right.” He insisted: “I don’t know what [retirement] means.”
David said: “I spend a lot of time fiddling with the words. I write a commentary and feel it’s finished, then go back over it the next day and find it full of infelicities, clumsiness and redundancies. If I thought I was turning in substandard work, that would stop me.”
Tom Hanks has stepped up for The Americas (Image: Getty)
He added that he hoped he would be able to recognise when it was right to step back and would not have to rely on someone else telling him the time had come to retire.
But for now, Tom Hanks has stepped up in David’s place, leaving