Edit: It seems as though others do say slow-th, but it's not something I've really heard from the younger generation
The joking immediately stopped and he stared at me deadpan and said "not funny. No one could do that."
It was amazing.
After having had that voice on well-produced nature content for my entire life, I find most other nature-documentary voice-overs quite jarring. Even the British ones (Tom Hiddlestone had a go recently IIRC).
I will say though that I enjoyed Paul Rudd doing ‘Secrets of the Octopus’. Didn't overplay it, just did a really good job IMHO.
I have lots of time for well-meaning parody though, such as this one about the majestic Australian White Ibis (otherwise known as the bin chicken) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4dYWhkSbTU
"Zoo Quest" is his first nature documentary series, from 1954(!), very different in style from today's nature shows. I remember as a child seeing clips of it when it was already ancient history -- grainy black-and-white footage of a very young and athletic Attenborough practically wrestling a lizard.
It was originally broadcast before colour TV existed in the UK (funnily enough, Attenborough was the controller at BBC 2 when they pioneered colour broadcasting) so everyone assumed it had been shot in black and white. But in 2016 someone discovered that much of the original footage was colour film. The restored version is absolutely gorgeous.
Yes! I think it's not just familiarity, what makes him definitive is a combination of factors: fantastic voice and deep domain knowledge and his very clear love and enthusiasm for nature.
You can get an actor with a great voice, Morgan Freeman or Tom Hiddleston or whoever, but you always know they're just reading from a script and probably don't know any more about the animals than you do.
And there are other experts with a knack for presenting, people like Mary Beard, but you can't just transfer that knowledge to a completely different subject area.