David Attenborough’s latest series, Great Barrier Reef, received a rousing premier at the Australian High Commission in London.
Celebrities strolling down the red carpet at Australia House on Wednesday night included Barry Humphries, Helena Bonham Carter, Heston Blumenthal , Prince Phillip and the world’s most famous naturalist himself.
“I dreamt of the Barrier Reef as a boy,” Attenborough said at the special screening.
The 89-year-old legendary film maker and wildlife advocate said, apart from his home, Australia’s north-east coast was his favourite part of the world.
“North Queensland is a wonderful place – it has everything. It has mountains, tropical rainforests, the Barrier Reef,” he said.
“It has wonderful creatures that occur nowhere else. It’s a great place.”
Attenborough’s three-part series about the Great Barrier Reef, funded in part by Tourism Australia, debuts in the UK on the BBC on Boxing Day before being broadcast around the world.
The documentary comes as scientific evidence mounts against the survival of the reef in the face of global warming and sea water acidity.