Brendan Walsh

But when I met David Attenborough, I would have been, what was I, in my late 30s?

No, early 40s I would have been.

And it was the first time in my life I genuinely can remember where I couldn't speak.

I was speechless.

But very quickly, I offered him a book and I barely could speak to ask him to sign it.

And I probably came across as a bit blunt.

And very quickly, I managed to get myself speaking and we talked about Ireland and obviously we talked about nature.

And funny enough, I did ask him, would you ever consider doing a series about Britain and Ireland, which he hadn't done up to that stage.

And he said, oh no, there's lots of great people in this country that are doing that already.

I work on the stuff that's further afield.

but what was and you know fast forward a few years and he created the Wild Isles series which is funny enough because I certainly don't think I planted a seed in his head maybe COVID had more to do with the fact but I don't mind that claim credit claim credit I'll take I'll take I'll take 1% of the credit but I do do absolutely listen of all of the stuff you know be it the Wild Isles you know Life in the Freezer Blueprint anything it doesn't matter what it is what stands out for you

Well, I think the most, the one I love the most, my gorillas are my favourite species of animal.

And so his footage from the early 80s with the gorillas, that was just visually, I can remember that as if it was yesterday.

And that stuck with me and I did my thesis in college on gorillas and I look after them on many of my days in the zoo now.

And I'm just ridiculously fortunate to be able to do that.

But also on a very different note, there was one episode, I think it was Planet Earth series, where it was an episode on caves.

And that hadn't really been done before.

And that kind of surprised myself that I was so into it, because generally rainforests would be one of my favourites, habitats just to see.

However, the cave zone I just thought was fascinating, you know, the depth they got in.

That was back in, I think, the 90s, like about 20 years ago, I think that series first came out.