david malone was born in north shields and grew up in 1970s london. his father, adrian malone, was also a documentary filmmaker, who produced the ascent of man with jacob bronowski and directed with carl sagan. malone spent nine years in america and studied biological anthropology at swarthmore college before joining the bbc science department and working there for nine years. he ended up joining the production team for "horizon", a regular documentary series on science and philosophy.