David Attenborough is presenting a new BBC nature documentary on macaque monkeys at 96

"You know if you saw him on the street you'd want to take him home, wouldn't you?" said one of the Ch4 Gogglebox participants about Sir David Attenborough during an episode featuring a polar bear who hunts for a seal beneath the ice. And we agree (if by 'him' they mean Attenborough and not the polar bear).

What home would not be brightened by David's commentary on life's mundane events, or more likely the activity happening in your garden or any outdoor space.

Thankfully, David is back narrating a new documentary on BBC 1 and will be shown tonight at 7.30pm, Friday 30 December.

Macaque: Monkeys In The Mountains – A Dynasties Special focuses in on a troop of Barbary macaques living in the Atlas mountains of Morocco. And specifically, the trials and tribulations of a male called Mac.

Like the previous Dynasties series and one-off episode, the Macaque episode will be narrated by the broadcaster and naturalist Sir Attenborough.

Since first presenting Zoo Quest in 1954, Attenborough has been a regular presenter and narrator of natural history programmes, particularly for the BBC, including landmark series such as Blue Planet and Planet Earth.

David is now 96 years old and had a special rapport with the late Queen Elizabeth II as they were the same age. They had lived through world wars, technological changes, music evolution, globalisation of... everything, and most importantly of all they both came to the same conclusion about conservation. It was important to them both to protect the species we have remaining.

The Queen often gave nods to the subject in her last few years but did not speak out in the way in which Attenborough has been able to. He did reveal in an interview that Queen Elizabeth cared deeply about nature. They had a lovely moment together which was televised in 2018 for a one-off documentary special at Buckingham Palace in which David pointed to a sun dial and suggested it was maybe not in the most ideal spot, in the shade.

The Queen ensured her gardener moved it to a more sun-filled location.

David has been increasingly vocal about the climate crisis and delivered a talk as a key note speaker at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. He spoke of how urgent action is required. His documentary on Netflix, called A Life on Our Planet, is a damning tale of how humans have wreaked havoc on earth through our excessive ways of living.

"The scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies," said David in September 2022. "We are running out of time, but there is still hope."

He's one of the last of his generation and we need to soak up as much David Attenborough wisdom as we can.

The previous Dynasties episodes have featured a wide range of mammal – and one bird – species. All previous episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.