David Attenborough, the excited but hushed voice of nature programs, turns 100

[mwooldri]

6. David Attenborough is part of the reason tennis balls are yellow.

He was the controller of BBC 2, at the time the only TV channel that could broadcast in colour. Coverage started with the 1967 Wimbledon championships. It was realised that white balls dont show up well on colour TV sets. Though it wasn't until 1986 that Wimbledon had yellow balls as the norm.

He also was responsible for making snooker popular on TV in the UK. In monochrome everything is a shade of grey. Of course, a game with coloured balls is perfect for colour TV. Had to be, when you got commentators saying "for those of you watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green".

Oh and he commissioned this comedy series called Monty Python's Flying Circus.