Now Playing: The B52s
The BBC moves in mysterious ways. In January - thanks to the suggestion of a friend who works for the Open University - I was interviewed for one of the episodes of BBC2/OU's forthcoming series Cosmos, presented by Adam Hart-Davis. They wanted the perspectives of an SF writer and former scientist on the future of space exploration, so I blathered about fusion rockets and space elevators and hopefully tried not to make too much of a fool of myself. I enjoyed meeting Adam and the rest of the production team - they were clearly enthused about the program, and had been doing a lot of travelling around the world in connection with it. I looked forward to seeing the series transmitted, assuming that the BBC would make a big splash about a new science program.
Much to my surprise, I was channel hopping last week (wondering if Mastermind was on) when I came across Cosmos actually airing. Now it's called The Cosmos: A Beginner's Guide. But there'd been no mention of it that I was aware of. I watched the first episode and thought it was well done - exactly the kind of non-gimmicky, non-patronising science programming that the BBC used to do so well (don't get me started on the dumbed-down travesty that is Horizon, please - a program which seems to assume that the basic steps of an argument have to be repeated at least six or seven times, and which now seems incapable of presenting science unless there's some kind of personality politics involved). Anyway, I caught the second episode of The Cosmos this week, involving CERN and dark matter among other things, and it was also very good - scientists being asked questions and allowed to answer in their own voices.
So why aren't the BBC telling us all about it? We all know about EastEnders, thanks - we don't need to be told it's on every five minutes. And yet a solid, well-made science documentary seems to have been shunted into the oblivion of a mid-evening slot of BBC2, with zero fanfare. Very odd - one almost gets the impression that the BBC is hoping it will go away, so they can squeeze in some more lifestyle programming.
Anyway, worth watching...
