Yahoo News David Attenborough shuts down BBC interview questions
Despite the fact that Sir David Attenborough is the original national treasure, we discovered this morning that he's not immune to the odd awkward moment.
The broadcaster and naturalist appeared on BBC Breakfast today (July 20) to discuss his new butterfly-counting campaign, but he was clearly unimpressed when host Naga Munchetty tried to get him to open up on other topics.
When she brought up Attenborough's recent documentary, The Queen's Green Planet, he seemed to close up and started providing very short, blunt answers.
"You recently had a discussion with the Queen – we're very keen to know whether you discussed plastics when you did meet her," Munchetty said, to which Attenborough simply answered: "No, we did not."
And when she suggested that the environment is "an issue that does appear to be held closely to the royal family's heart", he answered with a blunt: "That may be, yes."
Munchetty clearly wasn't oblivious to the Blue Planet II host's discomfort, saying: "I understand your reluctance for that conversation," but things only got worse from there.
When she tried to bring up the recent launch of the RRS Attenborough, named after the broadcaster, he interrupted her question by saying: "I wanted to talk about the big butterfly count, that's why you invited me here!"
But when Munchetty persisted in talking about the boat, he decided to deal with the situation by continuing to answer abruptly.
When asked how he felt when he saw the boat launch, he simply sighed: "It was a very moving occasion."
The super awkward conversation didn't go unnoticed by viewers:
Surely better to finish an interview a bit early than plow on with questions #davidattenborough clearly doesn't want to answer @BBCBreakfast #awkwardinterview
- Electra (@Electrath) July 20, 2018
Dont think that I've seen a much more awkward interview in a while than the one with #davidattenborough on @BBCBreakfast this morning! pic.twitter.com/3m1XwFdkWK
- Lesley Lickley and Grumpy Alan (@Lels1960) July 20, 2018
Sir David Attenborough taking zero shit on #bbcbreakfast this morning 💪🏼
- MrsD (@MrsDervish) July 20, 2018
Based on the interview with poor Sir David Attenborough earlier, I’m waiting for Naga to ask the travel expert what his favourite plane is. #bbcbreakfast
- Sarah (@BereftStatistic) July 20, 2018
Had to turn off @BBCBreakfast when the David Attenborough/@BBCNaga interview got deadly awkward. Gave me butterflies
- Patrick (@rosanowski) July 20, 2018
Well that went well...#davidattenborough #bbcbreakfast #roast #awkward 🦋🦋🦋🦋 pic.twitter.com/stR9XlKfBf
- Miz_Understood (@phoenix6413) July 20, 2018
We hope all potential future David Attenborough interviewers were watching for some tips on what not to ask...
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays at 6am on BBC One.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Instagram and Twitter account.
('You Might Also Like',)
