US president Barack Obama met with broadcasting great Sir David Attenborough for a glorious meeting of minds on conservation at The White House.

The resulting programme with Obama doing the interviewing, generated a lot of love for #AttenBama as it aired late on Sunday night on BBC One.

Sir David came across as lovely and humble. On greeting Obama he said it was “a great honour” to meet the president. The bromance started as Obama fired back: “No, it’s my honour.”

The interview was arranged to mark the broadcaster’s 89th birthday, and if Obama wanted to make Sir David feel old, Potus may have got off to the right start. “I grew up on some of your programming”.

From there Obama quizzed Sir David on the changes at the Great Barrier Reef, how humans are getting on with conservation goals, and what’s next for the “blue marble we live on”, with rising population numbers.

Talking about the beauty of America’s National Parks, Sir David said he loved how the parks were so big there could be lots of people but a visitor would still be alone.

Obama said: “It’s one of the great secrets of the United States, how big it is. There’s big chunks of it that are still undisturbed.”

After such a successful screening, there was just one outstanding question.

The 35-minute show is available on iPlayer for the next 29 days.