David Attenborough shares tribute to Queen Elizabeth II: “The whole nation is bereaved”

“[She] dedicated her life to serving the nation”

Sir David Attenborough has paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following the news of the monarch’s death.

The Queen died aged 96 on Thursday (September 8) at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, bringing an end to her 70-year reign.

In a statement to the Press Association, Attenborough, who was knighted by the Queen in 1985, said: “If there was a technical hitch, she wanted to know what it was, and if it had a funny side, she was quick to see the joke.

“Yet not for one second could you forget that you were in the presence of someone who had willingly accepted enormous responsibility and dedicated her life to serving the nation – that you were, in short, in the presence of royalty.

“The whole nation is bereaved.”

David Attenborough Queen
Queen Elizabeth II presents TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough with the Insignia of the Order of Merit in 2005 CREDIT: Anwar Hussein Collection/ROTA/WireImage

Attenborough previously worked with the monarch on 2018 documentary The Queen’s Green Planet about her work on the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy project, which aims to create a global network of protected forests in each of the 53 Commonwealth countries.

The broadcaster also helped produce the Queen’s Christmas messages throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Speaking to ITV News, Attenborough added: “She was an expert at getting people to relax. When you met her you were well-aware that you were in the presence of someone who was extremely important to our society and yet she made it seem that you were meeting another human being with exactly the same conditions that all human beings have.”

Many figures across the entertainment world have paid tribute to the Queen, including Paul McCartney, Elton John and Harry Styles.

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