David Attenborough TV show producers feared presenter could catch bird flu and die during filming

A producer of Sir David Attenborough’s forthcoming series has detailed some of the health and safety issues they faced while filming.

Wild Isles, which will air its first episode on Sunday (12 March), is the 96-year-old broadcaster’s first foray into exploring the wildlife of the UK.

It took three years to film and is set to mark Attenborough’s 69th year of being on television.

Ahead of the launch, Alastair Fothergill recalled some of the challenges of putting the series together.

One notable factor was the difficult terrain on the Welsh island of Skomer, where shearwater birds fly. There, they had an idea for a quirky interaction between Attenborough and the birds.

“The shearwaters are not great at taking off, so what the warden on the island said is, ‘If you sit David close to the burrows, they will almost certainly climb up his arm, onto his head and take off from his head’,” Alastair Fothergill told the Radio Times.

“We thought, ‘Wow, that could be TV gold’. That was the plan.”

Yet this could have resulted in disaster if it had gone ahead. Two weeks before filming began, avian flu was reported to be present on the neighbouring island of Grassholm, increasing the possibility that it could be on Skomer as well.

David Attenborough (Getty Images)

“I have an old friend who’s an expert on infectious diseases and I rang him up for his opinion,” Fothergill continued.

“He said, ‘Well, bird flu is actually extremely hard to catch, but if he [Attenborough] gets it he will die.”

Attenborough was not harmed during the filming process.

Radio Times also reported that the presenter and environmentalist had to go through training to be as fit as possible to film, and was accompanied by a doctor with a defibrillator every time he made the climb up the 68 steep concrete steps to the top of Skomer Island.

After the death of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia last month, it was reported that lateral flow testing could be reintroduced in the UK if there is evidence that avian flu is spreading between humans.

Wild Isles begins on BBC One on Sunday 12 March at 7pm.