I'm sure you're right about various of those details, like the deaths at Ypres, having been elided/changed/treated with artistic license in the interests of a) simplicity and b) symmetry. I think I decided fairly early on to treat it very much as a drama "inspired by real events", as the saying goes, and I would certainly be a bit suspicious of real life turning out to be quite that symmetrical.
That's a shame about Planck, though, since I did enjoy the positively cadaverous Donald Sumpter!
And as for Einstein's love life - there are times when life is just too implausible to survive as drama, I guess! Maybe the writer felt that would be a step towards bedroom farce too far...
But as you say, there was a lot to enjoy - and since you can fit what I know about theoretical physics on the back of a postage stamp, it's not hard for even the most simplifying of scientific-history dramas to up my net knowledge. Particularly when they intrigue me enough to send me off to Wikipedia and the Dictionary of National Biography (university jobs have their uses!) afterwards.
That's a shame about Planck, though, since I did enjoy the positively cadaverous Donald Sumpter!
And as for Einstein's love life - there are times when life is just too implausible to survive as drama, I guess! Maybe the writer felt that would be a step towards bedroom farce too far...
But as you say, there was a lot to enjoy - and since you can fit what I know about theoretical physics on the back of a postage stamp, it's not hard for even the most simplifying of scientific-history dramas to up my net knowledge. Particularly when they intrigue me enough to send me off to Wikipedia and the Dictionary of National Biography (university jobs have their uses!) afterwards.
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