David Attenborough Interviews Barack Obama

It sounds like a scenario from a fantasy dinner party: the most powerful man on the planet interviewing one of the world’s most beloved naturalists about his life story, about climate change and the future of life on Earth. But in May, it has emerged, this encounter did happen, when Barack Obama invited Sir David Attenborough to the White House for a televised discussion – in which he, the US president, was to ask the questions of the broadcaster, not the other way round. In the interview, to be broadcast simultaneously in the UK and US on BBC1 and BBC America on Sunday, Obama tells Attenborough: “I’ve been a huge admirer of your work for a very long time ... you’ve been a great educator as well as a great naturalist.”