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Exceptional TV
Dec. 2nd, 2008 10:00 pmWell, the episode of Horizon that has just ended was an absolute blast. Professor Brian Cox begins from the question "What time is it?", and in an hour proves that we haven't got the faintest idea, taking in ancient civilisations, cosmology, membranes and quantum mecahnics. Not bad for 9pm on a cold Tuesday evening. No doubt it will be on the BBC website for a while, and I thoroughly recommend watching it if you get the chance. Probably the concepts involved are child's play to some of you clever types, but for a humble accountant on the street, it's extraordinary stuff.
I'm generally very pessimistic about the state of British TV, but the one thing I think is in pretty rude health is our documentary-making. I think the days of Civilisation or the Ascent of Man are long gone, but we can still make documentaries which ask serious questions, and challenge the brain to expand to cover them. I may be an intellectual snob, but I think that is absolutely a Good Thing.
But of course we can very easily answer Brian Cox's original question, with the help of this simple instructional video from 1957, and its presenter, the world-renowned horologist Eccles:
I'm generally very pessimistic about the state of British TV, but the one thing I think is in pretty rude health is our documentary-making. I think the days of Civilisation or the Ascent of Man are long gone, but we can still make documentaries which ask serious questions, and challenge the brain to expand to cover them. I may be an intellectual snob, but I think that is absolutely a Good Thing.
But of course we can very easily answer Brian Cox's original question, with the help of this simple instructional video from 1957, and its presenter, the world-renowned horologist Eccles:
