As David Attenborough turns 100, we celebrate his legacy and all he represents

After shaking my hand, Sir David Attenborough said he’d have to put his into “neat alcohol for five minutes to get rid of all the microbes”. 

It was Monday 9 March 2020. There was a pandemic-shaped shadow bearing down on the UK, but the ways coronavirus would redefine our reality remained beyond comprehension. Looking back, it still feels unreal.

To shake or not to shake the hand of our most precious – then 93-year-old – national treasure? I’ve always had fair-to-good hand hygiene but now wasn’t the time to test that. I was pondering this dilemma outside the room in a Soho hotel where he was conducting interviews about his latest world-appraising documentary, A Life on Our Planet.

Another junket for a film was taking place in the room next door and panicky PRs were pacing the corridors trying to track down its missing star. A few minutes later, Barry Keoghan gave a shy nod as he headed into his interviews, and I was ushered into mine.

“I have clammy hands. Apart from that I think I’m clean,” I reassured Attenborough, who for 25 minutes spoke in his worldly-wise whisper about the changes he’d seen over his lifetime – as many as you could fit into 25 minutes – just as another transformation was taking place.

Exactly two weeks later, Boris Johnson would announce the first – but not the last – lockdown. The week after that, the interview was published into a world that had suddenly shifted on its axis.

The cover of that week’s magazine remains a sign of the times: “Calming words from a national treasure,” it says. We certainly needed those words then – and any sense of calm today remains welcome.

That’s why, as Attenborough turns 100, we wanted to celebrate his legacy and all he represents. And once we started looking, we noticed other centenaries and centenarians having their moment too. Attenborough was born the same week as the General Strike. Later that month delivered Miles Davis (26 May), five days later, Marilyn Monroe (1 June). Also in June, Mel Brooks turns 100 (28 June), remarkably still making mirth with the belated Spaceballs sequel due to launch next April.

Read more:

• Plants are still running the world… but new David Attenborough series The Green Planet shows they need our help
• David Attenborough: ‘The pandemic shows humanity we are all in this together’
• Five ways David Attenborough changed the world

Another centenarian continuing to be creative is Rene Robbins. For many years, she has been a contributor to our Street Art page, which shines the spotlight on artworks by those on the margins, and her story is as deserving of recognition as any icon’s.

And of course, all of these birthdays come in the same year as that of Queen Elizabeth II who would have had to send herself a telegram last month.

These people (and the General Strike) helped reinvent the world they were born into. And it’s amazing – not to mention inspiring! – that half of them are still going strong.

In unsettled times, it’s comforting to think that somewhere there might be a bunch of babies being born that will go on to reshape – perhaps even save – the messy world they arrive in. So don’t miss a May 2126 edition of Big Issue where we’ll celebrate them.

Steven MacKenzie is editor of Big Issue. Read more of his writing here. 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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