Sir David Attenborough’s eyewatering earnings revealed as presenter, 97, quadruples his wage
WILDLIFE workhorse Sir David Attenborough earned a staggering £7,206 a minute with his latest TV shows, accounts reveal.
At 97 years old, the naturalist looks to have quadrupled his earnings – pocketing around £4.2m for the year to last September, when he paid over £833,000 in tax.
It’s a mammoth rise on the previous year, when figures suggested he banked £1.3m.
Sir David had four shows on air over the 12 months — Climate Change: Drought for Prime Video, Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster and Wild Isles for BBC1, plus Secret World of Sound for Sky.
That’s some 578 minutes of TV.
The filing also shows the national treasure – who turns 98 in May – is sitting on a cash pile of £2.3m and assets worth £2.76m.
Long-time collaborator and series producer for his show on Sky, Sharmila Choudhury, has commented: “David keeps us on our toes. He sets the bar very high. And that’s a good thing.
“I think he still works harder than most of us, usually seven days a week.
“When he commits himself to something, he gives it 100 per cent.”
During the accounting period, his David Attenborough (Productions) Ltd was also likely banking fees from work in 2021 and spans his writing plus voiceovers.
A note on the documents state: “The tax currently payable is based on taxable profit for the year.
“Taxable profit differs from net profit as reported in the profit and loss account because it excludes items of income or expense that are taxable or deductible in other years, and it further excludes items that are never taxable or deductible.”
Last year, he was voted the UK’s favourite presenter of all time and remains one of TV’s hardest workers.
He has hardly been off the box since the 1950s when he began his TV career with The Pattern of Animals and Zoo Quest.