Naturalist Sir David Attenborough narrates Adele's return to the hunt


"A big pop star predator returned a couple of weeks ago," after years in the wild, BBC 1 radio host Greg James told famed naturalist Sir Richard Attenborough on his show Monday, before asking him to narrate the beginning of Adele's new mega-hit video "Hello." "Really? Won't Adele be cross with me?" Attenborough asked. "I think Adele would probably love this more than anything in the whole world," James assured him, so Attenborough started giving the National Geographic treatment to Adele's ode to bittersweet heartache. He's pretty good.
"Battling against strong winds and the weight of expectations, she's convinced that now is her time to strike," Attenborough says as the video begins. "She, like all pop stars, needs to hunt to survive. But there's a problem: The signal is poor, and she hasn't updated her handset since 1999 — hashtag flip-phone." After narrating Adele into the dusty house where she shakes out the dust and lights a kettle, Attenborough set the scene: "We are about to witness one of the great phenomena of the natural world. It's important for such a delicate and finely tuned animal that the lighting and the setting are just right — and now it is. The Lesser Spotted Adele is about to be everywhere again." "Hello," Adele sang. "Hello!" Attenborough replied. Watch below. Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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