Today we are celebrating the hundredth birthday of someone truly wonderful. A broadcaster without peer, who over the last seven decades has done far, far more than anyone else to open our eyes to the beauty of the natural world. To be quite honest, I am at a loss for what to say here today: I have written before of my sheer admiration for Sir David Attenborough. I hold him to be the greatest broadcaster ever, and probably always will. To think he started making television programmes before either of my parents were born, and is seemingly still going strong, is quite, quite incredible.

I fear that if I go on I would risk becoming too nauseatingly melodramatic, something which I doubt the great man himself would appreciate. How could I possibly list all the fascinating, beautiful things he has shown us or all of his astounding televisual triumphs in one short blog entry? I will therefore simply wish Sir David a very happy birthday, and say that absolutely nobody does what you have been doing for the last seventy years better. Thank you.