“I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE THIS HAPPEN IN MY LIFETIME.” At 99, Sir David Attenborough has shared a rare, deeply emotional reflection that feels like a quiet farewell and a heartfelt blessing all at once — as he turns his gaze toward Hamza Yassin, the man now capturing Britain’s imagination. In a freezing peat bog, with no script and no words, a wild hare gently brushing Hamza’s beard created a moment so pure it has been watched over 28 million times — not because it was dramatic, but because it was true. Those close to Attenborough say the scene moved him profoundly. After nearly a century spent giving nature its voice, his softly spoken praise for Hamza carried something heavier than admiration — it carried trust. “He listens,” Sir David is said to have remarked quietly, “and nature listens back.” From cameraman in the background to a presence that makes the entire country stop and breathe, Hamza’s journey feels like the beginning of something Britain didn’t know it needed — and the moment Sir David finally allowed himself to step back, knowing the wild would still be heard.

“The Torch Isn’t Being Passed — It’s Being Shared”: Sir David Attenborough’s Emotional Words Spark A New Era Of Nature TV.

Britain Has Found Its New Voice For The Wild — And He Doesn’t Read From A Script

Forget the polished presenters reciting facts about badgers from cue cards. Britain’s new natural-history hero doesn’t fit the old mould at all.

He stands 6ft 6in tall, speaks with a soft Glasgow-Sudanese lilt, learned to track lynx before he could drive, cries when otters hold hands and once spent 42 nights sleeping in a hide just to film pine martens falling in love.

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Last night, BBC One dropped the first trailer for Hamza’s Wild Britain, a six-part series landing in spring 2026 — and within four hours it became the most-watched BBC trailer of the past decade.

Hamza Yassin stands knee-deep in a freezing Highland river at dawn. A mother otter guides her pup into the water inches from his face. No music. No commentary. Just a whisper so quiet the mic barely catches it.

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“She’s telling him the water will hold him, if he trusts it. Same thing my mum told me when we arrived in Scotland and I couldn’t speak a word of English.”

From Sudan To The Scottish Wild

Hamza arrived in rural Northamptonshire from Sudan aged just eight, unable to speak English and clutching a bird  book from his father.

“Birds don’t care what language you speak,” his dad told him.

By 12 he was cycling ten miles before school to photograph kingfishers. At 16 he won Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with a yawning fox cub that looked like it was laughing at the universe. Bangor University became less about lectures and more about living closer to puffins.

Then came the unseen decade. Planet Earth III. Springwatch. Countryfile. Always the man in muddy boots who could lie motionless for 14 hours until a badger decided he was harmless.

Crews nicknamed him the Otter Whisperer after he filmed wild otters playing with pebbles in the Cairngorms by simply becoming part of the scenery for six weeks.
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The Glitterball That Changed Everything

His breakthrough wasn’t planned.

In 2022, he entered Strictly Come Dancing because his mum loved glitterballs and, as he joked, it might pay for a new hide. He won the series with Jowita Przystał — dancing with a rhythm he said he learned from watching golden eagles ride thermals.

Overnight, eight million viewers fell for the gentle giant who spoke about conservation between sambas.

The BBC moved fast. Hamza: Wild Isles followed in 2024. Then came the Emmy-nominated Hamza’s Sudan in 2025, where he returned to his birthplace to film the last northern white rhinos beneath the same stars he watched as a child. Critics called it the most emotional hour of television this decade. A New Era Of Nature  TV

Now Hamza’s Wild Britain is being quietly positioned as the spiritual heir to Life on Earth.

Filmed almost entirely by Hamza himself, he still refuses a full crew because animals, he says, do not like strangers. The series promises moments never captured before: red squirrels teaching their young to balance on power lines, urban foxes using pedestrian crossings at night, golden eagles hunting through blizzards so fierce Hamza had to be roped to a cliff for three days.
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The trailer’s unforgettable scene shows him lying flat in a peat bog at 4am, face inches from a mountain hare in winter white. The hare reaches out and touches his beard. Hamza does not move.

When it hops away, his voice cracks.

“Sometimes the wild decides you’re worth trusting. That’s the best feeling in the world.” Sir David’s Blessing

Sir David Attenborough has already given his rare approval.

“Hamza sees the natural world the way poets see love, with wonder that never ages,” the 99-year-old legend said. “The baton isn’t being passed. It’s being shared.” The Nation Responds

Social media is now flooded with children drawing otters wearing glittery bow ties for “Uncle Hamza.” Schools report record numbers of pupils saying they want to become rangers instead of YouTubers. The RSPB says junior membership has tripled in six months.

Hamza’s response was typically humble. He posted a photo of muddy wellies beside a child’s drawing of an otter holding a glitterball.

“I’m just the tall idiot who talks to animals,” he wrote. “Thank you for letting me into your living rooms. I’ll try to make the planet prouder than I am right now.”

Britain has found its new voice for the wild.

And it sounds like hope carried on a Highland breeze.