Sir David lashes out at Beeb’s lifestyle shows

It looks like Sir David Attenborough, who announced in February that he will no longer be traversing the globe presenting nature programmes, intends spending his retirement taking pot-shots at his former bosses at the BBC. Earlier this year, Sir David lambasted the Beeb for cutting nearly a third of the jobs in its Natural History Unit. Now, in a speech on the future of public service broadcasting, he has turned on the corporation's crass obsession with chasing ratings with home improvement and cooking shows.

"There are times when BBC1 and BBC2, intoxicated by the sudden popularity of a programme genre, have allowed that genre to proliferate and run rampant through the schedules, with the result that other kinds of programmes are not placed - simply because of lack of space," said Sir David, who was himself Controller of BBC2 in the Sixties.

"Do we really require so many gardening programmes, makeover programmes, or celebrity chefs?" he asked. "Is it not a scandal, in this day and age, that that there seems to be no place for continuing series of programmes about science or serious music or thoughtful in-depth interviews with people other than politicians?"