The 87-year-old broadcaster revealed that he managed to find out that crayfish were to be the subject of the dissection part of the exam when he was a 17-year-old pupil at Wyggeston Grammar School, Leicester.
He then got his hands on some specimens to experiment on. Sir David made the confession during a visit to Bradgate Park, Leicester, to launch an appeal by the local Rotary Club to raise £150,000 for a visitor centre.
He said: “We had exams coming up which were the equivalent of A-levels these days.
“We knew that the subject of the practical part of the biology exam was to be either a rabbit, a dogfish, a crayfish, a frog or an earthworm. It was during the war and we ate rabbits and dogfish, so it was not going to be them.
He left it on a desk. When I got the chance I picked it up and shook it
“There was not much to earthworms, so I figured it would be crayfish or frogs. One day, the caretaker came into the room with a metal tin which had ‘zoology practical’ written on the side.
“He left it on a desk. When I got the chance I picked it up and shook it.
“It rattled so I knew it was crayfish. I knew where I could get crayfish – the stream at Bradgate Park, so I headed there. I told all the other boys.”
Sir David said he and his fellow pupils all got distinctions in the exam.
He added: “When the results were published the teacher came out with tears in his eyes and said, ‘You are the most brilliant class I have ever had in my career’.”
Sir David said Bradgate Park was a place of world importance because of the fossils found there.
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