David Attenborough says King Charles has been at ‘forefront’ of concern for natural world

Charles has long been a passionate environmentalist

Sir David Attenborough has praised King Charles III for being at “the forefront” of concern about the natural world.

“He took quite extreme lines when they were not as popular or as widespread as they are now,” Sir David told the BBC, while helping cover the Queen’s procession on Wednesday.

“The question of talking to the plants at the time was joked about but actually now you realise that that came from his heart - he really meant it - and it couldn’t be more important now than it’s ever been,” he said, referring to Charles’ past admission that he speaks to his plants to help them grow.

Charles has long been an ardent environmentalist advocating for sustainability, organic farming and the importance of tackling the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.

However, now he is monarch it remains unclear how he will be able to carry his environmentalism forward into his new stricter constitutional role, which tends to avoid political issues.

As King, he has said publicly that it will no longer be possible for him to “give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply”.

Sir David, who has inspired generations of Brits by transporting the natural world through television screens and into people’s homes is the same age as the late Queen and had met her on a number of occasions as a broadcaster for the BBC.

He was responsible for several years for the Queen’s Christmas broadcast and spoke fondly of his interactions with the then-sovereign.

The latest series narrated by Sir David for the BBC, Frozen Planet II, is airing on BBC One.