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May I note my admiration for a BBC documentary presenter called James Burke?

He has an ability to both inform and entertain. I just watched one of his history programs in which he seamlessly links developments from the dark ages through to the modern day, maybe someone with an interest might like to watch it too. It's called Faith in Numbers.

General documentaries aren't quite so meaty these days, this one's well thought out and packed tight with interest.

I remember seeing that with my dad, Spot. I was amazed at how he connected the things that he did, I thought it was brilliant.

Would you like another? Back in the late 1980s he made a forecast program on Global Warming set in 2050. He's shockingly over-optimistic in what reaction we'd pay to the problem.

It's called After the Warming. Twenty years later and nothing he suggested has even been started on.

He didn't just front some of these programs, he wrote them as well.

Thanks Spot for the link. I just woke up so it's a little early but I will watch it soon and let you know what I think.

spot;746718 wrote: May I note my admiration for a BBC documentary presenter called James Burke?



He has an ability to both inform and entertain. I just watched one of his history programs in which he seamlessly links developments from the dark ages through to the modern day, maybe someone with an interest might like to watch it too. It's called Faith in Numbers.



General documentaries aren't quite so meaty these days, this one's well thought out and packed tight with interest. I also like those. I really like Simon Schama and Bettany Hughs.

A recent program on the lifecycle of stars, "Seven Ages of Starlight", has a brief clip at 1hr 6mins of James Burke announcing the discovery of pulsars in what I take to have been a Horizon program of 1968. The paragraph is a polished gem:Now, the people here say that if they got three signals as exactly spaced as that it would be very unusual. If they got four it would be phenomenal. Well, they've had pulses as exactly spaced as that twenty four hours of the day since November.

I really enjoyed his series Connections from the 70's....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series) and of course Tomorrow's World

I note, in passing, the deterioration of my eyesight. I just blinked several times on seeing "important evidence concerning the widespread existence of plants outside the solar system". Not just microbes but plants?? Finally I resolved "planets" and felt considerable disappointment.

Snowfire;1439547 wrote: I really enjoyed his series Connections from the 70's....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series) and of course Tomorrow's World


He really did start out young, he's only 76 now after all these years. I'd look forward to his reappearance were he to front a new science series.