Science Britannica

Episode one
The late Sir Patrick Moore had plenty of opinions, many of them – charitably – unusual. We’re not sure if his TV science successor Brian Cox holds wild and orthodoxy-baiting views, since essentially he’s that teacher who gets on with everyone and whom the girls and boys and other teachers quite fancy in an abstract kind of way.

Usually this isn’t a bad thing. Coxy has done wonders in keeping science the stuff of primetime as the era of Attenborough and Moore wanes. It’s only a bit of an issue when he’s discussing emotive topics such as GM crops and animal testing, as he is here: you want the frontman to pick a side. Still, this series promises to be an entertaining tour of our fair nation’s scientific achievements, and almost certainly free of the tabloid-beloved term ‘boffin’.