Posted by Nick James at 19:53 on 2013 Jun 08
At the risk of sounding terribly old, I don’t watch much science on TV any more since the content and presentation annoy me so much. I understand why programme makers target a large proportion of their output at a general audience and we all benefit through encouragement of an interest in science and astronomy, but I would hope for the odd "heavier" programme.I have a recording of a 1985 Horizon, narrated by Paul Vaughan, which covers the Grand Unification of forces. To me it it is model of how to explain a difficult concept, clearly and without hype. Modern Horizons don’t do that for me but I suppose that the 1985 version would probably send 95% of a modern audience to sleep…The Sky at Night certainly used to be a programme I watched every month. Things are very different now and I rarely get to watch. That’s not to say that it is in some way "worse" than before, but it seems that the programme is targetted at a different audience. For me, the Internet has replaced TV, and I find most of what I want there.Nick.