Jean-Baptiste Gouyon - BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough

This book series seeks to publish ground-breaking research exploring the productive intersection of science and the cultural imagination. Science is at the centre of daily experience in twenty-first century life and this has defined moments of intense technological change, such as the Space Race of the 1950s and our very own era of synthetic biology. Conceived in dialogue with the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), this series will carve out a larger place for the contribution of humanities to these fields. The practice of science is shaped by the cultural context in which it occurs and cultural differences are now key to understanding the ways that scientific practice is enmeshed in global issues of equity and social justice. We seek proposals dealing with any aspect of science in popular culture in any genre. We understand popular culture as both a textual and material practice, and thus welcome manuscripts dealing with representations of science in popular culture and those addressing the role of the cultural imagination in material encounters with science. How science is imagined and what meanings are attached to these imaginaries will be the major focus of this series. We encourage proposals from a wide range of historical and cultural perspectives.

Advisory Board

Mark Bould, University of the West of England, UK

Lisa Cartwright, University of California, US

Oron Catts, University of Western Australia, Australia

Melinda Cooper, University of Sydney, Australia

Ursula Heise, University of California Los Angeles, US

David Kirby, University of Manchester, UK

Roger Luckhurt, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK

Colin Milburn, University of California, US

Susan Squier, Pennsylvania State University, US

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15760

Cover image: Mint Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo

Cover design by eStudio Calamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Work for this book started when I researched my doctoral dissertation, more than a decade ago. Since then, many people have supported my work, provided me with much needed encouragement and contributed, in one way or another, to keep this project going: to Amanda Rees, at the Department of Sociology of the University of York, for her guidance and support during my doctorate, and her unflinching trust in my ability to write a dissertation; to Nik Brown and Robin Wooffitt, who formed my thesis advisory panel; to Greg Radick and Andrew Webster, who examined my thesis and asked questions which enabled me to take this research furtherto all of them, I would like to express my gratitude.

Lorraine Daston invited me to spend a year at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science as a postdoctoral fellow. This was a most formative time, and I am grateful to her as well as Gregg Mitman, Erika Milam, Paula Amad, Fernando Vidal, Daniela Helbig, Nasser Zakariya, Monica Aufrecht, and Etienne Benson, among others, for their collegiality during my stay in Berlin.

Louise North welcomed me over the years at the BBC Written Archives Centre in Caversham Park and was most patient in providing me with all the help needed to repeatedly access the material without which this book would not exist. James McQueen, at the BBC film archives, was also most helpful, readily providing me with copies of many programmes I would not have been able to access otherwise. All BBC copyright material is reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

A few historical figures of British wildlife television have shared their memories and views with me over the years. Sir David Attenborough welcomed me twice in his home; Sheila Fullom was a precious witness all along and sent me a wealth of material, some of it quite unique; Peter Jones shared his memories and took me around Bristol, giving me a sense of the wildlife film-making community there; Desmond Morris was kind enough to answer my numerous emails, as did Tony Soper, between two expeditions. I am grateful to all for our exchanges and their welcoming generosity.

I thank Tim Boon of the Science Museum in London for his feedback on some chapters and being an ever-attentive and supportive presence in my professional life. His infectious enthusiasm, extraordinary generosity, and untiring kindness are an inspiration. I thank Charlotte Sleigh for her continuous encouragements over the years. She believed in this book before I did. I thank my colleagues from the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London (UCL), especially Jon Agar and Edd Bankes, who provided me with feedback on some chapters, and Joe Cain for his friendly and energetic support since I joined UCL. Last but by no means least, my partner, Cline, has been there from the start, lending her eagle eyes, ignoring my grumpiness, to critically review the manuscript in the most helpful fashion despite her many other commitments. For this and much more I am deeply thankful.