Netflix Introduces 'A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough'
PBS may be making the biggest deal over Sir David Attenborough's centenary, but Netflix isn't ignoring it by any means.
PBS may be making the biggest deal over Sir David Attenborough's centenary, but they are far from the only ones who have spent decades relying on his shows for well-made Nature programming. BBC America (and in turn AMC+) is still the primary home of Attenborough's Planet Earth series, for example, and Amazon has snatched up a few Attenborough shows for Prime Video here and there. Meanwhile, after a decade of streaming older Attenborough fare, Netflix has become his preferred non-BBC home for shows that push the envelope. His Our Planet series, for example, openly calls out climate change denial and pushes for viewers to take action in a way that the BBC hasn't the nerve to allow.
Ahead of the naturalist's forthcoming birthday, Netflix has announced it will premiere the documentary film A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough, an intimate look at one of Attenborough's most famous relationships with an animal – his meeting baby gorilla Pablo in 1978 during the filming of his seminal Life on Earth. Attenborough's interactions with Pablo in the series went viral before the internet existed and helped the series become the BBC Nature specials that made him globally famous.
Netflix also makes a habit of going hard on Earth Day programming ahead of the annual event on April 22. With Earth Day falling on a Wednesday in 2026, the nature specials related to it will debut on the Friday before, April 17, three weeks before Attenborough's May 8 birthday. It's a perfect spot for Netflix to debut its Attenborough special, putting both Earth Day and Attenborough's 100th within the documentary's 30-day ratings window.
Here's the documentary's synopsis:
This intimate documentary blends the remarkable story of David Attenborough’s first encounter with the baby gorilla Pablo with a deep dive into how Pablo’s direct descendants are doing today in the mountains of Rwanda. Weaving together contemporary and archival footage of the gorilla group and narrated by Attenborough—including excerpts from his 1978 journals—A Gorilla Story is packed with extraordinary gorilla behavior never before filmed.
The film is narrated by and stars David Attenborough. Directed by Oscar winner James Reed (My Octopus Teacher) and assisted by Callum Webster and Amy Thompson, the series is produced by veteran nature documentarian Alastair Fothergill (Our Planet) for Silverback Films, plus Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Davisson & Phillip Watson for Appian Way.
A Gorilla Story: Told By David Attenborough will debut on Netflix on Friday, April 17, 2026, as part of the streaming service's slate of Earth Day programs. Attenborough's Our Planet series is also available via Netflix.
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