Oral History
View the oral history of Julian PettiferJulian Pettifer
Julian Pettifer was born in 1935 and grew up in the Wiltshire countryside. These early surroundings, combined with his father’s interest in animals and wildlife as a vet, left their mark on the young Pettifer, sparking an interest that would go on to inform a lifelong career as a television and radio presenter.
After a stint with the army in Korea and then graduating from Cambridge, Pettifer went on to, in his own words, “accidentally” begin a career in journalism at Independent Television (ITV) in 1958. He started by presenting a daily news and current affairs show and it is here that he began to realise the emerging convergence of nature and current affairs. This view was further entrenched when Pettifer began working at the BBC on the tonight programme where he was heavily involved with the reporting of the war, and wider situation, in Vietnam.
It was not until the 1980s that Julian fully immersed himself into the wildlife film industry. This began with him working with Robin Brown on a series called ‘Nature Watch’. Here Pettifer worked with a number of personalities such as Miriam Rothschild, Konrad Lorenz and Carl Jones to name but a few.
Later on in his career he made a number of feature programmes about natural events such as the El-Nino phenomenon, as well as programmes about the emergence of Climate Change. Julian is now retired but he continues to travel and write.
View the oral history of Julian Pettifer
