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| David Attenborough |
“The ZooQuest” was the first real wildlife adventure series of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It was spearheaded by Jack Lester (39), the then curator of reptiles in the London Zoo who had the zoological expertise along with a very young and inexperienced low-level producer David Attenborough (28). Instead of filming captive animals in the zoo, the crew would go to different parts of the world, capture live wildlife, film the entire process for broadcasting, and bring them back to the zoo. It was the most engaging way to educate the public on wildlife. In 1954, Jack Lester was on the first expedition for the ZooQuest in West Africa, specifically to Sierra Leone to capture a live specimen of Corvus albus, the pied crow. It was during this expedition that Jack Lester fell ill with a serious tropical infection. With Lester unable to host the show now, Attenborough was brought in to take over the show as he had already done some wildlife content and was well read, but he had been earlier rejected and labeled unfit to for on-camera work. They stated that his face was too long and his teeth too large. Lester’s misfortune accidentally made David Attenborough the on-screen presenter for the ZooQuest. Neither of them realized that this moment would lead to the growth of a natural history giant—someone whose voice would eventually influence global policies.
