I was watching Horizon earlier - presented by Alan Davies. Alan Davies, in case you aren't familiar, was in the mystery series Johnathan Creek. He's a staple of wrist-slashingly unfunny panel shows. And here he is, presenting Horizon. The episode was titled 'How Long is a Piece of String?' - ostensibly tackling the philisophical cliché, but hoping to sneak some quantum mechanics-lite in through the back door before anyone notices and puts 'Britain's Worst Teeth' on instead.
Alan delights in gurning at the camera and tittering about how he never passed his Physics GCSE - yet here he is - of all people! - mouth-agape, investigating the mysteries of the universe, amongst a selection of 'credible' scientists (many helpfully signposted by standing in front of vast chalkboards of equations, or scuttling around in white coats - the only things missing were bubbling beakers full of smoking red liquid, and 'comedy' explosions in the background). The fact that he failed a Science GCSE is clearly intended to add a hilarious dimension to proceedings - 'ooh, I could never understand all those bloody equations either, wasn't it all ridiculous!'.
What if the situation were inverted - imagine Vernon Kaye presenting an hour's worth of literary BBC4 where he grinningly admits that 5 dog-eared copies of Loaded are the only written words he's ever read, but nonetheless slogs through a critical discourse of Steinbeck, reading each line with a ruler underneath and saying the words aloud. The duty log would crumble from the sheer force of bilious rage directed towards it. Quite rightly. But admitting you were no good at science is somehow acceptable, endearing, even.
Science programming can now take an hour to make a single point - and to make this point it's become necessary to 'tell a story'. There was no story involved with this episode - or there shouldn't have been. Instead we're guided on some pointless adventure with the hapless Davies until, 45 minutes in, the programme itself gets bored and cuts to some fireworks footage soundtracked by Coldplay for the remaining 15 minutes, with rapturous applause over the end credits. OK, it doesn't, but it might as well.
Of course it's naive to assume something 'hardcore' would command the millions of viewers a BBC2 property like Horizon does, but it raises the question of whether there is any point - viewers with little basic science knowledge continue to hold the 'it's indistinguishable from magic' viewpoint, whilst the science-literate resort to 'Britain's Worst Teeth' on BBC3 out of frustration.
Alan delights in gurning at the camera and tittering about how he never passed his Physics GCSE - yet here he is - of all people! - mouth-agape, investigating the mysteries of the universe, amongst a selection of 'credible' scientists (many helpfully signposted by standing in front of vast chalkboards of equations, or scuttling around in white coats - the only things missing were bubbling beakers full of smoking red liquid, and 'comedy' explosions in the background). The fact that he failed a Science GCSE is clearly intended to add a hilarious dimension to proceedings - 'ooh, I could never understand all those bloody equations either, wasn't it all ridiculous!'.
What if the situation were inverted - imagine Vernon Kaye presenting an hour's worth of literary BBC4 where he grinningly admits that 5 dog-eared copies of Loaded are the only written words he's ever read, but nonetheless slogs through a critical discourse of Steinbeck, reading each line with a ruler underneath and saying the words aloud. The duty log would crumble from the sheer force of bilious rage directed towards it. Quite rightly. But admitting you were no good at science is somehow acceptable, endearing, even.
Science programming can now take an hour to make a single point - and to make this point it's become necessary to 'tell a story'. There was no story involved with this episode - or there shouldn't have been. Instead we're guided on some pointless adventure with the hapless Davies until, 45 minutes in, the programme itself gets bored and cuts to some fireworks footage soundtracked by Coldplay for the remaining 15 minutes, with rapturous applause over the end credits. OK, it doesn't, but it might as well.
Of course it's naive to assume something 'hardcore' would command the millions of viewers a BBC2 property like Horizon does, but it raises the question of whether there is any point - viewers with little basic science knowledge continue to hold the 'it's indistinguishable from magic' viewpoint, whilst the science-literate resort to 'Britain's Worst Teeth' on BBC3 out of frustration.
