James Walton reviews the weekend on television, including Stephen Hawking's Universe in which the physicist explores the idea of extraterrestrial life for the Discovery channel, and a new four-part ITV series, The Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh.The Simpsons dvd
Fans of ambitious television might want to take a look at Stephen Hawking’s Universe (Sunday) on Discovery – a new three-part series which promises us nothing less than “the story of everything there ever was”. South park dvd
Hawking introduces himself here as “a physicist, cosmologist and something of a dreamer”. Perhaps unexpectedly, it was the third of these that predominated during last night’s first episode.Disney dvd set|Disney dvd Most of the voice-over was provided by Benedict Cumberbatch (who also played Hawking in the 2004 BBC biopic of the scientist), but the words were Hawking’s own – which is what made the result so surprising and, at times, plain weird. family guy dvd|family guy
The theme for the first episode was aliens, a subject Hawking considers “entirely rational” for science to tackle. After all, as he reminded us with the help of some whizz-bang graphics, the universe really is remarkably big. Surely some things somewhere must be alive apart from us.Warner Bros DVD
If a planet has water, it could even be that evolution there has followed a similar pattern to ours, with its life-forms acquiring such handy attributes as eyes, mouths and legs. To prove it, the ever-resourceful graphics team then served up scenes in which some yellow flying thingies attacked some grey hippo thingies with mouths like colossal foxgloves. Dreamworks animation DVD| Dreamworks animation
But what if there’s no water? Again, this was no problem for either Hawking or the graphics team. In worlds where “liquid nitrogen laps frozen shores” sheep-like silicon-based thingies could be shivering in the wind. Or, on gaseous planets, airborne jellyfish gas-based thingies might live by eating lightning. baby einstein dvd collection
By now, it was getting difficult to ignore just how many “could”s, “might”s, and cosmic-sized “if”s were going into the professor's thesis. Yet, as it turned out, the programme was barely clearing its throat. So, what on earth is Hawking up to here?
One possibility, I suppose, is that he believes it all – in which case, a TV reviewer should probably shut up. Nonetheless, it was hard to rid yourself of a feeling that he was either taking the mickey or taking the money.Dawson’s creek dvd box set Certainly, Discovery must have been delighted that his ideas were such undeniable fun and made for such great visuals – not least when he moved on to his next big if, about how some aliens could have evolved enormous brainpower and decided to colonise the cosmos. “If the universe is full of intelligent, space-faring aliens,” Hawking informed us, “I imagine they might exist in massive ships like this…” (Cue a scene similar to the opening of Star Wars.) Not only that, but “it might be possible” for these aliens “to collect the energy of an entire star” using millions of space mirrors. This, in turn, “might make it possible to warp the very fabric of space” and “create a wormhole that enables them to travel huge distances in the blink of an eye”. No wonder that, American dad dvdafter all his excited speculation, Hawking was forced to end on a sombre note. “Let’s just hope,” he warned, “that if aliens do find us, they’ll come in peace.”
Meanwhile, back on planet earth, ITV is offering a more traditional Sunday-night series. The Seasons with Alan Titchmarsh (Sunday) works pretty much as you’d expect. (For one thing, it’s a four-parter.) In yesterday’s episode, about spring, we duly saw the British countryside at its most beautiful and heard Titchmarsh at his most lyrical. Aladdin dvd| Aladdin “Spring,” he told us, “is a feeling in the pit of your stomach. You can smell it too: a sweetness on the breeze that’s all its own.” And with that, we were off to watch some of Britain’s cutest animals emerging from winter.
Like many a Sunday-night show before it, this one is also fiercely nationalistic. At one point, Titchmarsh spared a thought for those poor folk in the tropics who never get to see a bluebell wood. Everybody he met agreed they’d never want to live anywhere but Britain. Naruto dvd|Naruto
Still, if the series is unlikely to win any awards for originality – or for anything else – there’s no denying that it’s perfect at what it does. Every shot (except possibly one of Titchmarsh in an ill-advised floppy hat and mac) is successfully seductive. Dragon Ball Z DVDsCompared to that in other Sunday-night Brit-fests, the music is almost restrained – and occasionally even stops altogether so we can hear the sounds of nature. Few presenters have Titchmarsh’s lightness of touch in conveying the “passion” now required of all documentary presenters.Hogan’s Heroes DVD Set
Nor is the programme wholly froth. Last night’s episode mixed in bits of poetry, history, mythology and just enough science to remind us all over again how miraculous spring is. You might even argue, in fact, that it created a greater sense of wonder – and with rather less effort – than Stephen Hawking on aliens. Dragon Ball Z DVD set
Home