David Attenborough’s ­astonishing seven decades on TV have made him the best known and most loved naturalist in the world.

He turns 90 next Sunday and his millions of fans are gearing up for a week of celebration shows.

Sir David’s career has produced breathtaking documentaries from every corner of the globe.

And generations of enthralled viewers have watched the legend get close up and personal with exotic animals both large and small.

His unassuming style of presenting is perhaps best known from the BBC Life On Earth series in 1979, during which he famously won the trust of gorillas in Rwanda.

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Attenborough’s own choice of wildlife moment he would most like to relive is capturing the mating display of the bird of paradise in New Guinea in 1957.

Sir David's first show to be shown in colour for the first time

He recalled: “I tried a lot of times to get that. We were the first people to film it in the wild.

“It was dawn. The light came up and it did a couple of squawks, ­vibrated its feathers and flew off. It was the greatest thing in the world.”

Sir David met the gorillas in Rwanda (
Image:
BBC)

The season of tribute shows kicks off on his birthday with an hour-long special presented by Desert Island Discs star Kirsty Young.

Sir David’s first nature series, Zoo Quest, will also be shown in colour for the first time on Wednesday May 11 on BBC4. Luckily for us, the TV veteran has no plans to retire.

Jane the chimp was a hit with viewers on 1950s show Zoo Quest (
Image:
BBC)

He says: “I have a great time. I’ve got new knees now and can go faster than I used to.”

Here, the Sunday People takes a look back at some of Sir David’s top TV moments.

Getting species for London Zoo, 1954

On the trail of the Komodo dragon (
Image:
BBC)

Sir David revealed the first footage of the fearsome Komodo dragon when he went to Indonesia for the BBC’s Zoo Quest.

The show kick-started his wildlife presenting career in December 1954 and ran until 1963.

Read more:Attenborough reveals the worst experience of his career

Each series he travelled with London Zoo experts to tropical countries such as New Guinea, Guyana and Sierra Leone to capture a new animal.

This was accepted zoological practice at the time – and established Sir David’s name.

Finding ‘lost’ tribe, New Guinea, 1971

The Biami tribe of New Guinea (
Image:
BBC)

He came across the mysterious Biami tribe when he took viewers through an unexplored area of New Guinea in his 1971 programme A Blank on the Map.

After weeks of searching in the South East Asian island, his patrol found signs of human life and was then approached by the curious tribesmen.

They appeared friendly but became worried when Sir David’s group tried to follow them home.

They vanished into the forest – and were never seen again.

Crawled over by crabs, 1990

In the way of a procession of crabs (
Image:
BBC)

A red tide of female crabs crawled over him on Christmas Island in The Trials of Life in 1990.

The horde of crustaceans swept down the beach towards the Indian ocean to deposit their eggs.

Sir David said: “The crabs just treated me as another obstacle – a particularly oddly shaped boulder, perhaps.

“They simply walked straight over me by whatever route they could find.”

Up close to an albatross

Shedding new light on the majestic albatross (
Image:
REX/Shutterstock)

Sir David charted the life of the albatross for Life in the Freezer in 1993.

The opening episode of the Antarctic series featured Sir David marvelling at the massive bird’s incredible wingspan.

He went on to show how the scavengers travel thousands of miles in their hunt for krill.

Viewers also saw albatrosses snaffling the remains of a whale.

Elephant seals 1993

Getting a little too close to an elephant seal (
Image:
BBC)

Sir David had to raise his stick and back off sharpish as a huge elephant seal targeted him in Life in the Freezer, in 1993.

He was talking to camera by the shore in the Antarctic, revealing how the blubbery monsters fight to attract a mate in breeding colonies.

Penguin pals 1993

The TV naturalist brought us close-up views of penguins (
Image:
Nature Picture Library / Rex Features)

He was surrounded by thousands of emperor penguins for Life in the Freezer in 1993.

Sir David homed in on the life story of the Antarctic penguins, who are the only birds to lay their eggs directly on the ice.

As the egg is passed from female to male, he showed how the chaps huddle together and incubate the shells in the bitter cold as the females set off into the sea to feed.

Paradise birds 1996

The presenter always wanted to get close to birds of paradise (
Image:
BBC)

He achieved a lifetime ambition at the age of 70, in 1996, by getting up close to fabulous birds of paradise.

The colourful New Guinea encounter, in Attenborough in Paradise, came after he had merely glimpsed one in profile in the 1950s.

Blue whale 2001

A thrilling encounter with the blue whale (
Image:
BBC)

He kept viewers enthralled when a reclusive blue whale suddenly surfaced in Blue Planet in 2001.

Despite being one of the biggest animals on the planet, blue whales are one of the most rarely seen. The sighting was a coup for the series about our oceans.

With US President, 2015

Discussing climate change with Barack Obama (
Image:
Chuck Kennedy/The White/BBC/PA)

Last May Sir David sat down with President Barack Obama at the White House for a candid talk about the state of the planet.

Obama, who said he grew up watching the naturalist’s films, wanted to meet him to talk about climate change and its threat to the environment.

Sir David was born in west London in 1926 and was raised at University College Leicester, where his father Frederick was principal.

Sir David’s distinguished career has won him generations of fans (
Image:
BBC)

His late brother Richard was an actor and Oscar-winning film director, with hits including Jurassic Park and Gandhi.

David graduated from Cambridge in 1947 with a degree in Natural Sciences before national service in the Royal Navy.

He married Jane Oriel in 1950 and they had two children, Robert and Susan. Jane died in 1997. David joined the BBC in 1952 and his first hit was Zoo Quest in 1954. He ran BBC2 for a while before returning to documentary making.