Abstract
This chapter compares and contrasts the various ways broadcasters have used anniversaries associated with Charles Darwin as a media hook. Focusing first on the Darwin Centenary in 1958–1959, the chapter explores how content reflected wider celebrations and their focus on the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis. The chapter demonstrates that media created for Darwin anniversaries has often reflected societal concerns of the day and argues that analysing the changing representation of evolution helps us understand how a mythic narrative that exalted Darwin as a figurehead emerged. In a final coda, the chapter uses the vast broadcast content from the 2009 Darwin anniversary as a vantage point from which to reflect on the evolutionary epic, humanist narratives in science and the other major themes introduced in the prior chapters.
[T]he very notion of “Darwinism” is misleading, suggesting not a programme for research but a set of dogmas which bold spirits will want to rebel against. Certainly Darwin constructed an edifice: but that edifice is a laboratory, not a temple.
—Eric Korn, review of “Did Darwin Get it Wrong?” 1981 (Eric Korn, “remainders”, The Times Literary Supplement, May 15, 1981, 541)
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Notes
- 1.
The Reith Lectures , “The Future of Man”, written and presented by Peter Medawar, November to December 1959, BBC Home Service. The lectures were repeated the following day on the BBC Third Programme, serialised in the BBC magazine The Listener, and published as a book the following year. The Future of Man: The BBC Reith Lectures 1959 (Basic Books Inc., 1960).
- 2.
The six titles of Medawar’s lectures: The Fallibility of Prediction, The Meaning of Fitness, The Limits of Improvement, The Genetic System of Man, Intelligence and Fertility and The Future of Man.
- 3.
Peter Medawar, The Future of Man: The BBC Reith Lectures 1959 (Basic Books Inc., 1960), 99.
- 4.
The final lecture in the series can be listened to online at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p00hg13w (last accessed 01/06/21).
- 5.
This section was adapted with permission from: Alexander Hall, Tom Kaden, and Fern Elsdon-Baker, “Darwin Day: Celebrating Without Deifying”, Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum Blog, February 2016.
https://sciencereligionspectrum.org/in-the-news/darwin-day-celebrating-without-deifying/ (last accessed 02/06/2021).
- 6.
John van Wyhe, “1909: The first Darwin centenary”, The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online, 2002, http://darwin-online.org.uk/1909.html (last accessed 02/03/21).
- 7.
Bernard Lightman, ‘The Many Lives of Charles Darwin: Early Biographies and the Definitive Evolutionist’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 64:4 (2010): 339–358, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2009.0059.
- 8.
Julian Huxley, Evolution, the Modern Synthesis (Allen & Unwin, 1942); and Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology (Princeton University Press, 1996), 97–153.
- 9.
Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, ‘The 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration in America’, Osiris 14 (1999): 274–323.
- 10.
Smocovitis, ‘The 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration in America’, 321.
- 11.
The full proceedings of the centennial celebrations can be read online, Huxley’s speech is in volume 3, pages 249–261. Sol Tax and Charles Callendar, Evolution after Darwin: the University of Chicago Centennial, Volume III (University of Chicago Press, 1960), https://archive.org/details/evolutionafterda03taxs/page/n5/mode/2up (last accessed 02/06/21).
- 12.
Krishna R. Dronamraju and Joseph Needham, If I Am to Be Remembered: Correspondence of Julian Huxley (World Scientific, 1993), 132–133.
- 13.
Julian Huxley, “The Evolutionary Vision: Convocation Address”, in Sol Tax and Charles Callendar, Evolution after Darwin: the University of Chicago Centennial, Volume III (University of Chicago Press, 1960), 260.
- 14.
Smocovitis, ‘The 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration in America’, 314. Huxley picked up this argument in his opening chapter in the 1961-collected edition, The Humanist Frame (Harper and Brothers, 1961). As well as featuring the writing of prominent scientists, including Jacob Bronowski, the book contained chapters by many prominent humanist thinkers of the period, including a closing chapter, “Human Potentialities” by Julian’s brother, the author Aldous Huxley.
- 15.
See ‘Central Religious Advisory Committee: Minutes File 1, 1958–1961’, R6/21/8, BBC-WA, which includes deliberation and discussion of whether to broadcast content on humanism, a Jewish service once a year and reflections on the marked decline in religious faith among the British population. It is important to note that in this period the Central Religious Advisory Committee also oversaw religious content on the newly licensed ITV network.
- 16.
In 1949, the BBC turned down Julian Huxley for the Reith Lectures , when via the producer Mary Somerville he pitched a series of lectures on “Man and Evolution”. Following extensive revisions, including a review by Henry Dale, the talks eventually aired as The Process of Evolution, written and delivered by Julian Huxley, October to November 1951, BBC Third Programme. Talks. ‘Sir Julian Huxley, File II & III, 1950–1962’, Rcont1, BBC-WA.
- 17.
H. R. Hewer and Norman Riley, XVth International Congress of Zoology, London, 16–23 July 1958: Proceedings, Volume 1 (XVth International Congress of Zoology, 1959); “Notes and News.” The Auk, 75:3 (1958): 378–380.
- 18.
Smocovitis, ‘The 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration in America’, 281–282.
- 19.
Among other activities, including involvement with the 1958 London conference, the Royal Society produced a special issue to coincide with Origins’ centenary, and the Linnaean Society unveiled a plaque commemorating the reading of Wallace and Darwin’s papers. Royal Society of London, Notes and Records, 14:1, 1959; and “Darwin-Wallace Plaque”, The Times, July 5, 1958, 8.
- 20.
For examples of the wide-ranging print coverage the anniversaries generated see: “The World of Science: David (Cannon) and Goliath (Darwin)”, The Illustrated London News, July 5, 1958, 32; Gertrude Himmelfarb, Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (Chatto and Windus, 1959); and M. L. Johnson, Michael Abercrombie and G. E. Fogg (Eds), New Biology 28, January 1959 (Penguin).
- 21.
Desmond Hawkins (Head of West Regional Programming) to Archibald Clow, BBC Memo, November 23, 1956, R34/981, BBC-WA.
- 22.
Calls for more oversight and coordination of science broadcasting continued to be led by the Royal Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. ‘Advisory Committees: Science Consultative Group, 1958–63’, R6/239/1-BBC-WA.
- 23.
H. Rooney Pelletier (Controller, Programme Planning (Sound)) to Assistant Director Sound Broadcasting, BBC Memo, May 21, 1957, R34/981, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 24.
Barry Jackson (Talks Department) to Chief Assistant (Third Programme), BBC Memo, June 8, 1953, R34/981, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 25.
In addition to those discussed here this series of radio broadcasts also featured among others, evolutionary biologist, Ernst Mayr (“The Real Origin of Species”, May 20, 1959); geneticist and eugenicist C. D. Darlington (“The Control of Evolution in Man”, January 9, 1959); and geneticist and eugenicist Ronald Fisher (Evolution in Action, “The Discontinuous Inheritance”, July 8, 1958). See John Simons, “Darwin Centenary Programmes”, BBC Memo, November 13, 1957, R34/981, BBC-WA.
- 26.
“Evolution: Nature’s Technique of Creation”, written and delivered by Gavin de Beer, June 29, 1958, BBC Home Service; and Christopher Holme, “Darwin Centenary”, memo to P. H. Newby, May 8, 1957, R34/981, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 27.
“Evolution and Religion”, featuring Peter Medawar, David Newth and David Lack, July 2, 1958, BBC Third Programme; and P. H. Newby (Chief Assistant, Talks (Sound)), “Christianity and Natural Selection”, BBC Memo, November 8, 1957, R34/981, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 28.
Peter Medawar, “Evolution and Religion”, July 2, 1958, BBC Third Programme, 5–8. Transcript on microfilm at BBC-WA.
- 29.
“Five Hundred Million Years”, Radio Times, April 18, 1958, 15.
- 30.
Peter Scott, “Our Galapagos Expedition”, Radio Times, September 11, 1959, 3.
- 31.
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, BBC Wildlife Documentaries in the Age of Attenborough (Springer Nature, 2019), 84.
- 32.
For more on how Scott’s approach to natural history broadcasting increasingly became viewed as amateur by the professionalising team at BBC West England, which officially became the Natural History Unit in 1957, see Gouyon, 99–102. As well as being a broadcaster Soper was a noted naturalist, publishing many books, including with fellow NHU Producer John Sparks (Chap. 6). See, for example, John Sparks and Tony Soper, Penguins (David & Charles, 1967).
- 33.
For more on the establishment of the research station and wider conservation efforts in the Galapagos, particularly those driven by Julian Huxley, see Elizabeth Hennessy, ‘Mythologizing Darwin’s Islands’, in Darwin, Darwinism and Conservation in the Galapagos Islands: The Legacy of Darwin and Its New Applications, ed. Diego Quiroga and Ana Sevilla, Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands (Springer International Publishing, 2017), 65–90, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34052-4_5.
- 34.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature was established in 1948 under the impetus of Julian Huxley in his role as the first Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Peter Scott, “Our Galapagos Expedition”, 3.
- 35.
Hennessy, ‘Mythologizing Darwin’s Islands’; Elizabeth Hennessy, On the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden (Yale University Press, 2019), 116–146.
- 36.
See also the subsequent publication of the voyage, which featured many of Philippa Scott’s still photographs: Peter and Philippa Scott, Faraway Look II (Cassell, 1960).
- 37.
G. G. Mosley (Head of Overseas Talks and Features), “Darwin Centenary”, BBC Memo, February 28, 1958, R34/981, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 38.
“Natural Selection Re-Examined”, written and delivered by Ronald Good, March 22, 1959, BBC Third Programme. For more on the academic argument that formed the basis of Good’s radio lecture, see: Ronald Good, Features of Evolution in the Flowering Plants (Longmans, Green & Co., 1956).
- 39.
“The Darwinian Reception”, written and delivered by Alistair Crombie, November 24, 1959, BBC Third Programme.
- 40.
Smocovitis, Unifying Biology; Hennessy, On the Backs of Tortoises; and Peter J. Bowler, ‘The Specter of Darwinism: The Popular Image of Darwinism in Early Twentieth-Century Britain’, in Darwinian Heresies, ed. Abigail Lustig, Robert J. Richards, and Michael Ruse (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 48–68. For more on Darwin’s public profile during his own lifetime see: Janet Browne, ‘Charles Darwin as a Celebrity’, Science in Context 16, no. 1–2 (March 2003): 175–194, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0269889703000772.
- 41.
While internally some BBC producers referred to proceedings as the Darwin/Wallace Centenary, the overwhelming majority of correspondence called it the Darwin Centenary from the outset.
- 42.
As well as content broadcast on the BBC General Overseas Services in both English and local regional languages, there were also broadcasts on Darwin and evolution produced by broadcasters all over the world during 1958/1959, with several prominent radio and television broadcasts following the Chicago conference in the US. Sol Tax and Charles Callendar, Evolution after Darwin, Volume III, 263–270; and Smocovitis, ‘The 1959 Darwin Centennial Celebration in America’, 312–313.
- 43.
G. G. Mosley (Head of Overseas Talks and Features), “Darwin Centenary”, BBC Memo, February 28, 1958, R34/981, BBC-WA; Lindley Fraser (Head of German Services), letter to Julian Huxley, January 29, 1958, ‘Talks. Sir Julian Huxley, File III, 1950–1962’, Rcont1, BBC-WA.
- 44.
John van Wyhe, ‘Darwin Online and the Evolution of the Darwin Industry’, History of Science 47:4 (1 December 2009): 459–473, https://doi.org/10.1177/007327530904700407; Michael Ruse, ‘The Darwin Industry: A Guide’, Victorian Studies 39, no. 2 (1996): 217–235.
- 45.
For example, “Special Anniversaries”, BBC News Information Service, September 1957, R34/981, BBC-WA.
- 46.
Other non-scientist anniversaries commemorated in 1958–1959 included a talk on the Cromwell Tercentenary by C. V. Wedgwood (“Servant of the Lord”, November 10, 1958, BBC Home Service) and a talk on the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln by Columbia University Professor of History, David Donald (February 12, 1959, BBC Home Service). BBC, Annual Report and Accounts for the year 1958–59 (HMSO, 1959), 42.
- 47.
“Sir Isaac Newton”, written and delivered by James Jeans, December 25, 1942, BBC Home Service.
- 48.
Other significant anniversaries marked with a radio talk in the period that Lamarck was overlooked, include Isaac Newton (1942), Joseph Banks (1943), Antoine Lavoisier (1943), Nicolaus Copernicus (1943), Andreas Versalius (1943), and Louis Pasteur (1945). G. R. Barnes (Director of Talks), “Science Talks”, December 14, 1943, R51/523/4, BBC-WA.
- 49.
Geoffrey Grigson, “Bi-Centenary of Lamarck: Professor R. C. Punnett”, BBC Memo to Vincent Alford, June 14, 1944, R51/523/4, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 50.
Vincent Alford, “Bi-Centenary of Lamarck”, BBC Memo to Geoffrey Grigson, May 23, 1944; and Vincent Alford, “Bi-Centenary of the Birth of Lamarck: August 1744”, BBC Memo to Director of Talks, July 4, 1944, R51/523/4, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
- 51.
David Penny, ‘Epigenetics, Darwin, and Lamarck’, Genome Biology and Evolution 7:6 (2015): 1758–1760, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evv107.
- 52.
John C. Greene, ‘Reflections on the Progress of Darwin Studies’, Journal of the History of Biology 8:2 (1975): 243–273.
- 53.
Meeting Point, “The Battle of Oxford”, July 31, 1960, BBC TV; Leonard Huxley, The Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (D. Appleton & Co., 1901), 192–199.
- 54.
While across the twentieth-century BBC broadcast content on Darwin easily eclipses any other historical or contemporary scientist, historical figures from areas such as politics, royalty and cinema have had much more airtime dedicated to their lives. Notable examples include Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria and Charlie Chaplin. For more on the contemporary role that celebrity plays in the public understanding of evolution see Amy Unsworth and David Voas, ‘The Dawkins Effect? Celebrity Scientists, (Non)Religious Publics and Changed Attitudes to Evolution’, Public Understanding of Science, 25 (2021), 0963662521989513, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662521989513.
- 55.
“Darwin at Westminster”, written and presented by James Moore, April 18, 1982, BBC Radio 4, The Radio Times, April 15, 1982, 39. Other content during 1982 that used this creationist frame included an episode of the BBC Radio 1 youth debate show Talkabout (1979–1983) in which members of a youth club in Sheffield debated evolution versus creation. Talkabout, “The Apes v The Angels”, April 6, 1982, BBC Radio 1.
- 56.
The World About Us, “The Forgotten Voyage”, written by Elaine Morgan, produced and directed by Peter Crawford. December 24, 1982, BBC Two. Interested readers can watch the whole docudrama online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eQ6DadodA (last accessed 12/06/21).
- 57.
Although more wide-ranging and often anthropologically focused in its content than other natural history series in the period, despite the odd historical re-enactment, the format for The World About Us was almost always a traditional natural history documentary. Combining BBC commissioned episodes with syndicated films made by international partners, such as National Geographic, early seasons included famous naturalists, such as the French marine conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau, the primatologist Jane Goodall, and a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation episode on Darwin. David Attenborough, Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster (Princeton University Press, 2002), 211–212; The World About Us, “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”, November 3, 1968, BBC Two; The World About Us, “The Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees”, May 26, 1968, BBC Two; and The World About Us, “Darwin”, September 1, 1968, BBC Two.
- 58.
Chris Dunkley, “Few Goodies at Christmas”, The Financial Times, January 5, 1983, 13; and The Natural World, “The Garden of Inheritance”, written by Elaine Morgan, produced and directed by Peter Crawford, February 6, 1984, BBC Two.
- 59.
Saturday Cinema: The Darwin Adventure, October 30, 1982, BBC Two.
- 60.
“The Voyage of the ‘Beagle’”, Voyages of Discovery, produced by Rayner Heppenstall, written by George Orwell, BBC Home Service, March 29, 1946; and The Voyage of Charles Darwin, written by Robert Reid, produced by Christopher Ralling and Ned Kelly, and directed by Martyn Friend, October to December 1978, BBC Two.
- 61.
This list of 36 episodes of Horizon that have featured substantive content on evolutionary science is not exhaustive, it covers the period 1964–2009, and many episodes on related subjects such as embryology, genetic modification and palaeontology have not been included. A full list of all Horizon episodes can be found online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Horizon_episodes (last accessed 15/03/2021). “Professor J.B.S. Haldane, Obituary” (1964), “The Living Stream” (1965), “Genes in Action” (1966), “Comfort on Ageing” (1968), “The Manhunters” (1970), “Darwin’s Bulldog” (1971), “The Fierce People” (1971), “What Is Race?” (1972), “Search for Life” (1974), “The Race for the Double Helix” (1974), “The Lysenko Affair” (1974), “The Selfish Gene” (1976), “The Ape that Stood Up” (1977), “One of Nature’s Hotels” (1977), “Genetic Roulette” (1977), “Darwin’s Dream” (1977), “Bags of Life” (1978), “Did Darwin Get it Wrong?” (1981), “Tropical Time Machine” (1983), “Professor Bonner and the Slime Moulds” (1984), “The Blind Watchmaker” (1987), “Chimp Talk” (1993), “Life Is Impossible” (1993), “The Predator” (1994), “Tibet, The Ice Mother” (1995), “Darwin the Legacy” (1998), “Designer Babies” (1999), “Wings of Angels” (1999), “The Missing Link” (2001), “The Ape That Took Over the World” (2001), “Cloning the First Human” (2001), “The Day We Learned to Think” (2003), “Neanderthal” (2005), “A War on Science” (2006), “My Pet Dinosaur” (2007), and “What’s the Problem with Nudity” (2009).
- 62.
Nancy Banks-Smith, “Darwin’s Dream”, The Guardian, September 24, 1977, 10.
- 63.
Horizon, “Did Darwin get it Wrong?” Written and produced by Alec Nisbett, narrated by Paul Vaughan, 30 March 1981, BBC 2.
- 64.
“Darwin: The Life”, March 28, 1998, BBC Two, 03:50–04:10: https://archive.org/details/BBCDarwinTheLifeMar1998/BBC+Darwin+-+The+Life+(Mar+1998).VOB (last accessed 15/06/21). The episode drew heavily on the works of historians of science and Darwin biographers, in particular Adrian Desmond, James Moore and Robert M. Young. In the opening talking head sequences, Moore and Desmond both pose holding their biography Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (Penguin, 1992).
- 65.
The documentary featured a clip of Julian Huxley in a film produced by the Eugenics Society called Heredity in Man (1937) in which Huxley extolled the virtues of population control via restricting the reproduction of “defectives”, saying it would be better if disabled people were not born. The full 14-minute film can be watched online: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-heredity-in-man-1937-online (last accessed 15/06/21). While following the atrocities of the Second World War, Huxley’s position on eugenics would alter significantly, he remained a supporter of a reformed type of eugenics that operated via social planning; both modes of his thinking on this subject were inextricably linked to his vision for evolutionary humanism. Paul Weindling, ‘“Julian Huxley and the Continuity of Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Britain”’, Journal of Modern European History 10:4 (2012): 480–499, https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944_2012_4.
- 66.
“Darwin: The Legacy”, March 29, 1998, BBC Two. Available online: https://archive.org/details/BBCDarwinTheLifeMar1998/BBC+Darwin+-+The+Legacy+(Mar+1998).VOB (last accessed 15/03/21).
- 67.
An archived website giving an overview of all of the BBC activities made as part of “Darwin Season 2009” including links to much of the BBC Regional events and coverage can be found here: “Darwin: The Genius of Evolution”, BBC Website (Archived), http://www.bbc.co.uk/darwin/ (last accessed 16/06/21).
- 68.
Following the BBC, Channel 4 had the next most Darwin content during 2008/2009, while the other main terrestrial broadcaster ITV had very little dedicated content. For examples see: The Genius of Charles Darwin, directed by Russell Barnes and Dan Hillman, written and presented by Richard Dawkins, August 2008, Channel 4; “The Battle for Charles Darwin”, History Channel, September 25, 2009; and “Darwin: 150 Years of Evolutionary Thinking”, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SunF2buXOUg (last accessed 16/03/21).
- 69.
For more on the development of work on the public understanding of science in the UK see Jane Gregory and Simon Jay Lock, ‘The Evolution of “Public Understanding of Science”: Public Engagement as a Tool of Science Policy in the UK’, Sociology Compass 2:4 (2008): 1252–1265, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00137.x. For an account that deals with the growth of celebrity with regard to elite science popularisers see Declan Fahy, The New Celebrity Scientists: Out of the Lab and Into the Limelight (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
- 70.
One of the most high-profile releases that coincided with the anniversary year was the film Creation (Recorded Picture Company/BBC Film, 2009), which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2009, before being distributed globally. Starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles and Emma Darwin, the biopic, which received a mixed reception from critics and popular audiences, deals with the challenges facing Darwin during the writing of Origin, in particular the effects on his personal faith in God and the grief he suffered following his daughter’s death. “Darwin biopic to launch Toronto”, BBC News Online, July 15, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8151456.stm (last accessed 16/03/21); “Creation”, Rotten Tomatoes Website, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1205717-creation (last accessed 16/03/21); and Rowan Hooper, “Review: Creation: The Movie”, New Scientist, September 23, 2009, 49.
- 71.
Commissioning editor for factual television content, Martin Davidson acted as the commissioning editor for the season. “The BBC’s Darwin Season: marking the life and work of Charles Darwin – introduction”, BBC Press Pack, January 21, 2009, http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/01_january/21/darwin.shtml (last accessed 16/03/21).
- 72.
For example, the pop station Radio 2 managed a tie-in in with an episode exploring the Shrewsbury Folk Festival’s Darwin Song Project.
- 73.
- 74.
The British Council is a charity and non-departmental public body sponsored by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office tasked with promoting the UK, via international cultural and educational activities. The Darwin Now project ran activities in over 50 countries worldwide including workshops, a website, a mobile exhibition and a major conference held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt in November 2009. Fern Elsdon-Baker, ‘Creating Creationists: The Influence of “Issues Framing” on Our Understanding of Public Perceptions of Clash Narratives between Evolutionary Science and Belief’, Public Understanding of Science 24:4 (2015): 422–439, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514563015; Amal Bakry, ‘Cobranded Diplomacy: A Case Study of the British Council’s Branding of “Darwin Now” in Egypt’, International Journal of Communication 14:0 (2020): 20.
- 75.
The episode of Leading Edge, “Attitudes to Darwin” discussed creationism in US classrooms and a Darwin exhibition in Turkey, while the episode, “On the Origin of Species” featured the British Council Darwin Now conference held in Egypt. Readers can listen to these two episodes online: Leading Edge, “Attitudes to Darwin”, June 4, 2009, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kq564; and Leading Edge, “On the Origin of the Species”, November 26, 2009, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nyz7n (last accessed 16/06/21).
- 76.
The sheer scale of BBC broadcasts planned for 2009 meant that during 2008 when the Wallace/Darwin anniversary occurred there were only a few repeats and one minor new series on evolution or Darwin across the whole year, an effect that is evidently seen in Fig. 1.1. The one new series was Hunting the Beagle written and presented by Dr Robert Prescott, April 2008, BBC Radio 4.
- 77.
Great Lives, presented by Matthew Parris and produced by Miles Warde, January 23, 2009, BBC Radio 4.
- 78.
George W. Beccaloni and Vincent S. Smith, “Celebrations for Darwin downplay Wallace’s role”, Nature, 451, 1050 (2008), https://doi.org/10.1038/4511050d.
- 79.
See, for example, Bill Bailey’s Jungle Hero, presented by Bill Bailey, produced by Sam Hodgson and Tuppence Stone, October 2019, BBC Four. For more on the series, including short clips see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0160nxk (last accessed 21/06/2021).
- 80.
For example, Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, presented by David Attenborough, produced by Sacha Mirzoeff, February 1, 2009, BBC One; The Genius of Charles Darwin, directed by Russell Barnes and Dan Hillman, written and presented by Richard Dawkins, August 2008, Channel 4.
- 81.
For example in the BBC Radio 4 series Dear Darwin contemporary biologists, Craig Venter, Jonathan Miller, Jerry Coyne, Peter Bentley and Baruch Blumberg, wrote letters to Darwin in which they outlined how his work had shaped their own research. A similar concept was used in the BBC Four one-off, What Darwin Didn’t Know, which was written and presented by the biologist Armand Marie Leroi.
- 82.
Horizon, “The Ghost in Your Genes”, produced by Nigel Paterson, November 3, 2005, BBC Two.
- 83.
Despite the provocative title and accompanying controversy-centred framing, in Did Darwin Kill God? the philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham presented an accommodationist account in keeping with earlier BBC content on evolution and religion. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, produced and directed by Kate Bartlett, presented by Andrew Marr, March 2009, BBC Two; and Did Darwin Kill God?, produced by Emily Davis and Jean Claude Bragard, written and presented by Conor Cunningham, March 2009, BBC Two.
- 84.
The BBC Concert Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed the resulting piece of music, Sine Tempore as part of a BBC Proms concert comprised of music connected to Darwin. Their performance can be watched online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axNCWpM1fQk (last accessed 16/06/21).
- 85.
Patrick Foster, “Eighth Bafta slides into hands of Attenborough for reptile series”, The Times, April 27, 2009, 9.
- 86.
Nasser Zakariya, A Final Story: Science, Myth, and Beginnings (University of Chicago Press, 2017).
- 87.
Zakariya, 409–417.
- 88.
For examples, see, Ian Hesketh, ‘The Recurrence of the Evolutionary Epic’, Journal of the Philosophy of History 9:2 (2015): 204–209.
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Hall, A. (2021). Remembering or Deifying? The Darwin Anniversaries of 1959 and 2009. In: Evolution on British Television and Radio. Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83043-4_8
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