Video: Britain’s Greatest Invention, 2017

This new BBC Two show, Britain’s Greatest Invention, at 20:30 this evening, is hosted by Dr Hannah Fry (@FryRsquared), with celebrities championing objects from the Science Museum.

The objects will be they will championing are: the fridge, steam engine, antibiotics, jet engine, mobile phone and TV.

I should hold judgement on this, but it has all the tropes of low ambition modern broadcasting, including a presentable (and no doubt super smart) presenter, celebrities, and a simple (simplistic) concept. The ‘greatest invention’ idea is so hackneyed, rarely telling us anything about innovation – which, surely, is more interesting – and allowing Brits to wallow in our tendency to invent but not innovate, while elevating the image of the eccentric inventor. (This format has event permeated the highfalutin Battle of Ideas conference.) At least in this show the mobile phone is championed as a combination of inventions.

A more interesting model was Steven Johnson’s How We Got To Now, which also went out on BBC2, and followed the more intriguing themes Glass, Cold, Sound, Clean, and Light. Yes, Yes, there’s room for both on the Beeb. And I probably wish I’d got ahead in broadcasting as Steven Johnson – or Hannah Fry – has. And my next TV-related post will be celebratory, of the BBC’s The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway series on Crossrail.

Posted to Facebook, 15 June 2017

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