Zoo Quest - first on-screen appearance by David Attenborough

The celebrated television naturalist David Attenborough first appeared on our screens in Zoo Quest, which began on 21 December 1954. He went - as a producer - to Sierra Leone with zoologists Jack Lester and Alfred Woods, to film them collecting animals for London Zoo. The footage shot in the wild by cameraman Charles Lagus was augmented in the finished programme with studio sections, where some of the creatures collected were seen up close. When Lester fell ill Attenborough stepped in as presenter.

In a time before mass tourism the places and animals filmed in Zoo Quest were unfamiliar to the majority of the audience and had not been seen on television before. The second series of Zoo Quest went to Borneo in search of the komodo dragon, resulting in more unique footage. Attenborough continued presenting throughout the decade, although officially just a producer.

Attenborough went on to become Controller of BBC2 and oversee the introduction of colour television. Eventually in 1979 he realised his ambition to make a large scale natural history programme using the latest technology, with the landmark 13-part series Life on Earth. Now, instead of describing the animals as he had to in Zoo Quest, Attenborough was able to let the colour pictures speak for themselves.