The Genius of Invention is a British factual television series that was broadcast on BBC Two between 24 January 2013 and 14 February 2013. The series looks over the history of British inventions.
| The Genius of Invention | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Factual |
| Directed by | Victoria Bell |
| Presented by |
|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 4 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Dominic Crossley-Holland |
| Producers |
|
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | BBC Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | |
| Release | 24 January – 14 February 2013 |
Production
editOn 23 August 2013, BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow announced the commissioning of the series.[1] The main presenters of the series were Mark Miodownik, Cassie Newland and Michael Mosley.[2]
Episode list
edit| # | Title | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[3] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Power" | 24 January 2013 | 1.60 | |
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How Britain uses power through technology. | ||||
| 2 | "Speed" | 31 January 2013 | N/A | |
| 3 | "Communication" | 7 February 2013 | N/A | |
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The formation of machines that allow communication across the globe. | ||||
| 4 | "Visual Image" | 14 February 2013 | N/A | |
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The inventors who discovered how to reproduce still and moving images. | ||||
Reception
editTerry Ramsey of The Daily Telegraph gave the series three out of five stars and said that "despite the jumpy style and occasionally annoying chat, it had a lot of appealing science packed in, all neatly wrapped up so it didn’t even feel like we were learning. And it served as a useful reminder of just how much we rely on electricity."[4] The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe said "everything from presentational style to the level of the material it contains it's essentially a children's programme. In fact, it calls for a new verb: to Bluepeterise, a shorthand for the increasingly fashionable technique of dividing the content up between three puppyishly eager presenters".[5] Lucy Mangan, writing for The Guardian called it "terrible".[2]
DVD release
editThe series was released in the original English as a region 2 DVD set by a Dutch company in 2015.
References
edit- ^ "BBC Two announces raft of new commissions". BBC. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
- ^ a b Mangan, Lucy (24 January 2013). "TV review: The Genius of Invention; Carved with Love; The Good Wife". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
- ^ "BARB Top 30s".
- ^ Ramsey, Terry (25 January 2013). "The Genius of Invention, BBC Two, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
- ^ Sutcliffe, Tom (25 January 2013). "Last Night's Viewing: The Genius of Invention, BBC2". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
