During his 70-year career as a television naturalist, Sir David Attenborough has suffered painful escapades including being spiked by a cholla cactus in Arizona and being left bleeding and briefly unconscious after he was washed under a boat’s heavy wooden dive platform by a freak wave in the Bahamas.
Now, however, an Emmy-nominated wildlife cameraman who has worked with Sir David is suing the BBC over a workplace injury he suffered himself.
Matthew Conor Robinson has brought a personal injury claim against BBC Natural History and Factual Productions Ltd, court records reveal.
The claim, filed on August 13, is listed at the High Court in London as a personal injury case arising from an accident at work.
Details of the alleged accident have not yet been made public and it is not known when or where the incident is said to have happened, what Robinson was working on at the time or what injuries he claims to have suffered.
He declines to comment.
Matthew Conor Robinson has brought a personal injury claim against BBC Natural History and Factual Productions Ltd
Robinson worked on Netflix’s Our Planet II throughout 2021 as a production camera operator, shooting sequences that appeared in the Sir David Attenborough-narrated series. Writing about his work on the production, Robinson says on his website: ‘I worked on sequences across all four episodes and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for work on the Laysan Albatross sequence.’
The experienced cameraman has travelled the world filming wildlife for some of television’s biggest natural history productions, with other recent credits including Underdogs, Americas and Sentient.
His professional credits also record wildlife camera work for Springwatch.
A spokesman for BBC Natural History and Factual Productions Ltd declines to comment.
Back to the fuchsia for Pinkham
Clearly Natalie Pinkham and her husband are in the pink this summer.
The Sky Sports Formula 1 presenter, 48, and businessman Owain Walbyoff, 44, wore matching 1980s-style fluorescent fuchsia-pink outfits and pink sunglasses as they partied on Necker Island, owned by the billionaire Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson, in the British Virgin Islands.
‘Summer Lovin ’26,’ wrote Natalie, who shared this snap online.
She and Owain, who have two children, also wore luminous green headbands and wristbands.
Natalie is a close friend of Sir Richard’s daughter Holly.
Colonel cloudbuster
With Andy Burnham warning that ‘Britain is a tinderbox right now’, Colonel John Blashford-Snell calls for drastic measures to be taken. ‘While travelling in Mongolia I saw anti-aircraft guns being used to seed clouds and produce rain,’ says the celebrated explorer, 89, who founded the Scientific Exploration Society. ‘If suitable clouds can be found in Britain, perhaps they could be seeded by aircraft or drones.’
US raises £15m for Wills charities
America may be tiring of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but it can’t get enough of the Prince and Princess of Wales. I can disclose that the US branch of William and Catherine’s Royal Foundation donated £6.6million to the Earthshot Prize, the couple’s environmental awards scheme, last year. Its annual report discloses that the American Friends of the Royal Foundation provided 27 per cent of the £23.9million income raised by the Earthshot Prize in the year to March. Across Earthshot and the Royal Foundation, American funds contributed £15.3million in 2026.
Strictly needs to be nastier, says Cole
He was once known as the bad boy of the ballroom for his fiery backchat with the judges.
And former Strictly Come Dancing professional Brendan Cole, 50, claims the BBC show has lost its edge because the judges are now too nice.
‘If Len [Goodman] or Craig [Revel Horwood] wanted to be a bit nasty, they would be, and it made great TV,’ he tells the Nicky Byrne HQ podcast. ‘Craig used to be really quite nasty. Now he’ll be a little bit nasty, but he’ll always finish on a positive, which is good for today’s day and age and mental health and all that sort of thing.
‘But I’d prefer him to stick to the nasty and leave it at that because it makes better television.’
No embarrassment tutu great for pop crooner James Blunt
James Blunt is prepared to carry out his record company’s instructions, however embarrassing, to promote his new single, Tastes Like Summer.
Wearing a pink tutu in a video he posted online from Ibiza, the You’re Beautiful singer says: ‘They want me to prostitute myself, doing stupid things like a bomb [dive] into a swimming pool, or eat a sausage, or wear a tutu. I just don’t understand why you can’t just go out and listen to the music, buy the music, stream the music, whatever your kids do.’
Blunt, 52, who is married to aristocrat Sofia Wellesley, adds: ‘Even our icons like Brian May or the Rolling Stones are having to do this rubbish, too.’
Gail lashes ex-agent
Former TV star Gail Porter, who performed a Dickens reading at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, was left shocked by the behaviour of a former agent.
She reveals: ‘Before I had even finished, an agent I used to work with called the venue and said: ‘I want 20 per cent of what Gail is getting.’
‘I was doing it for free because it’s my home and my privilege.
‘I still get shocked by people and greed. Never let anyone squeeze you dry.’
