BBC4? I'll be talking about Littlewoods next
I've been watching a brilliant BBC4 programme for the past couple of nights, about the history of mathematics. Tonight dealt with the Indians' contributions, before moving over to Italy and yammering on about Fibonacci for a bit. It's pitched at an interesting level; the presenter (a mathematician) avoids using too many formulae, x's and y's, and goes through amusing verbal contortions to avoid uttering the word "hypoteneuse". Presumably this is to avoid deterring the viewer who hasn't done maths since they left school; the same reason for the travelogue element to the show (there's no other reason, after all, for him to visit the Middle East to discuss Babylonian numerals). Having said that, the show never lapses into gimmickry and always sticks closely to the mathematical ideas that it is presenting.
As TV popular science programmes go, it's up there with the early episodes of Local Heroes, before Adam Hart-Davis ran out of Greeks, and at the other end of the spectrum from that terrible space programme in the late 90s, presented by Sam "I'm not a scientist but I play one on TV" Neill.
Oh, and it also features Yann Tiersen music from Good Bye Lenin! (the funniest, saddest, most touching and only East German comedy I have ever seen). This is good (the music is excellent), bad (it distracted me, both because it reminded me of the film and because I felt the need to shout "Yann Tiersen! Good Bye Lenin!" whenever it started) and mystifying (the Berlin Wall is relevant to cubic equations why??) in equal proportions.
It's available to view on the iPlayer here.
As TV popular science programmes go, it's up there with the early episodes of Local Heroes, before Adam Hart-Davis ran out of Greeks, and at the other end of the spectrum from that terrible space programme in the late 90s, presented by Sam "I'm not a scientist but I play one on TV" Neill.
Oh, and it also features Yann Tiersen music from Good Bye Lenin! (the funniest, saddest, most touching and only East German comedy I have ever seen). This is good (the music is excellent), bad (it distracted me, both because it reminded me of the film and because I felt the need to shout "Yann Tiersen! Good Bye Lenin!" whenever it started) and mystifying (the Berlin Wall is relevant to cubic equations why??) in equal proportions.
It's available to view on the iPlayer here.