A Night With The Stars BBC2/BBC HD Sunday 18th

ninja 12

Just a heads up for anybody who's interested .

A Night With The Stars is on BBC2/BBC HD on Sunday 18th December @9pm.

For one night only, Professor Brian Cox goes unplugged in a specially recorded programme from the lecture theatre of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. In his own inimitable style, Brian takes an audience of famous faces, scientists and members of the public on a journey through some of the most challenging concepts in physics.
With the help of Jonathan Ross, Simon Pegg, Sarah Millican and James May, Brian shows how diamonds - the hardest material in nature - are made up of nothingness; how things can be in an infinite number of places at once; why everything we see or touch in the universe exists; and how a diamond in the heart of London is in communication with the largest diamond in the cosmos.

muskyj

Did anyone watch this?
I thought it was very entertaining and the look on some of the 'celebrity' faces was priceless. having an interest in both physics and chemistry I really enjoyed it but I know it went way over alot of the audiences heads!

who_ru

to be honest i thought it was pretty poor viewing, the audience looked bored beyond belief and why we need celebrities in a setting like this is anyone's guess.

I'm afraid science on tv in the UK (BBC) is less about the subject matter and more about the presenter now.

Myrddin

who_ru wrote: »

to be honest i thought it was pretty poor viewing, the audience looked bored beyond belief and why we need celebrities in a setting like this is anyone's guess.

I'm afraid science on tv in the UK (BBC) is less about the subject matter and more about the presenter now.

I thought it was very enjoyable, it sure beat an hour of the usual reality sh1te fest tv we get normally.

coylemj

who_ru wrote: »

I'm afraid science on tv in the UK (BBC) is less about the subject matter and more about the presenter now.

+1 Can't stand Brian Cox, he seems to think he is the reincarnation of Carl Sagan with all this mystical mumbo jumbo, evens sounds like him FFS and now that the UK press has fallen in love with him he has become an unstoppable train. We're going to have him constantly popping up on the little box for the next 40 years like David Attenborough and Patrick Moore before him, God help us!

Drake66

coylemj wrote: »

We're going to have him constantly popping up on the little box for the next 40 years like David Attenborough and Patrick Moore before him

Here's hoping. The guy is a class act.

namloc1980

coylemj wrote: »

+1 Can't stand Brian Cox, he seems to think he is the reincarnation of Carl Sagan with all this mystical mumbo jumbo, evens sounds like him FFS and now that the UK press has fallen in love with him he has become an unstoppable train. We're going to have him constantly popping up on the little box for the next 40 years like David Attenborough and Patrick Moore before him, God help us!

We should be celebrating the fact that someone like Brian Cox can bring science to the forefront of the media and into the public spotlight, not denigrating him. The media is full of ****e like Xfactor, and anyone that brings a bit of science and education into the media should be applauded.

Turtwig

namloc1980 wrote: »

We should be celebrating the fact that someone like Brian Cox can bring science to the forefront of the media and into the public spotlight, not denigrating him. The media is full of ****e like Xfactor, and anyone that brings a bit of science and education into the media should be applauded.

Can't really +1 this enough.

Myrddin

coylemj wrote: »

+1 Can't stand Brian Cox, he seems to think he is the reincarnation of Carl Sagan with all this mystical mumbo jumbo, evens sounds like him FFS and now that the UK press has fallen in love with him he has become an unstoppable train. We're going to have him constantly popping up on the little box for the next 40 years like David Attenborough and Patrick Moore before him, God help us!

Two masters of their craft & a pleasure to watch & listen to.

Perhaps a night with Jedward would have been more fun?

Batsy

coylemj wrote: »

+1 Can't stand Brian Cox, he seems to think he is the reincarnation of Carl Sagan with all this mystical mumbo jumbo, =

None of what Professor Brian Cox says is mystical mumbo jumbo. Maybe you should watch one of his programmes and you might actually learn something.

Batsy

muskyj wrote: »

Did anyone watch this?

I watched it and I enjoyed it a lot. I'm a bit of a fan of Professor Cox, with his good looks, permanent smile (no, I'm not gay) and friendly Oldham accent.

He also manages to explain some of the more complicated aspects of physics and astronomy in a very easy-to-understand way.

I also enjoyed watching the two BBC documentary series that he narrated: "Wonders of the Solar System" (2010) and its sequel, "Wonders of the Universe" (2011). These two shows were incredibly popular in the UK. "Wonders of the Universe" attracted six to eight million viewers each week.

And here's a little fact that you may not know about Brian Cox. He was the keyboard player with the British Nineties pop group D:Ream, whose 1993 hit "Things Can Only Get Better" was used by the Labour Party as their theme during the 1997 General Election.

coylemj

Batsy wrote: »

None of what Professor Brian Cox says is mystical mumbo jumbo. Maybe you should watch one of his programmes and you might actually learn something.

Frankly I can't resist reaching for the remote when I start hearing words like 'cosmos' and 'stardust' and as for 'learning something'? I don't think so.

The programmes he fronts represent astronomy dressed up as entertainment, the science takes second place to imagery, grand sweeping camera movements, new age music - and how many times do we need to see the presenter dreamily gazing into the sky?

Thanks but no thanks.

Myrddin

coylemj wrote: »

The programmes he fronts represent astronomy dressed up as entertainment, the science takes second place to imagery, grand sweeping camera movements, new age music - and how many times do we need to see the presenter dreamily gazing into the sky?

Thanks but no thanks.

Well, they are on television to be fair. Do you not think through said entertainment, that he might actually get people interested in astronomy who wern't previously? Plus, where's the harm in what he's doing?

Maybe we should all be fed algebra on screen, throw in a few quadratic equations & it'd be one wild night in front of the box.

I'm the farthest thing that can be got from a mathematician, but I love astronomy on the surface level. In this way, the likes of Wonders of the Universe etc are a total pleasure to watch, as is Brian Cox because as mentioned above, his presentation is totally effortless & engaging.

coylemj

EnterNow wrote: »

Maybe we should all be fed algebra on screen, throw in a few quadratic equations & it'd be one wild night in front of the box.

Now you're talking

Seriously, I recognise that it has to be presented in an interesting and entertaining fashion or you won't get and hold on to the audience in these days of 100+ channels. I just think that the presenter's presence is too dominating and that the science content is too diluted and presented in a haphazard way such that I doubt if any of the educational aspects of the programme actually sticks.

Myrddin

coylemj wrote: »

Now you're talking

Seriously, I recognise that it has to be presented in an interesting and entertaining fashion or you won't get and hold on to the audience in these days of 100+ channels. I just think that the presenter's presence is too dominating and that the science content is too diluted and presented in a haphazard way such that I doubt if any of the educational aspects of the programme actually sticks.

It's not because there's 100+ channels, that its presented in this manner though. Its presented the way it is so its attracting to watch to those of us who are genuinely interested, but don't know how to add letters together & divide by an apple pi

I commend the BBC for showing it, while everyone else was showing "I'm not a celebrity but want to be", I got to watch an hour special that talked about Quantum theory, Relativity & the cosmos. Fair dues :cool:

xper

While I did enjoy this programme, I thought Brian Cox was genuinely nervous and not all the on-stage demos with the celebrity volunteers actually worked in terms of explaining the topic at hand - Sarah Millican in particular didn't get hers at all first time and he just ploughed on. Surprising given how well he explains stuff in his 'Wonders of...' programmes. I wonder what his university lectures are like?

Also, it was no compensation for the relegation of the Royal institute Christmas Lectures to the more obscure tv channels in the last few years.

Batsy

Everybody is nervous when they do the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture. It's normal. Sir David Attenborough has described how terrified he was when he did one in the 1960s.

DominoDub

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9wcSLs8ZQ

refusetolose

brian cox was on the jonathan ross show last night

its repeated thursday night