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Just Another Day

Adam Hart-Davis
  • Posted at 12:31pm
  • 17 September 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT

There are many ways of forcing human beings to absorb facts – let's see, there's bribery, there's torture – but teachers generally have two approaches. When I was at school, one of them was typified by Mr Roucoux, a serious Belgian man in an ill-fitting suit who took very little pleasure in droning on interminably about molecular structure. In response, we chucked pencil sharpeners around and repeatedly asked if we could go to the toilet.

The other approach was taken by Mr Maple, an eccentric chap full of joie de vivre who would successfully drill chemical formulae into our heads by alternating them with eye-opening double entendres. And thanks to the internet, I've just found a video of him playing acoustic guitar really badly. Marvellous! (Please note this clip contains swearing.) Anyway, the point is that, in my experience, one of these methods yielded better results than the other.

So it's not terribly surprising that there are more Mr Maples than Mr Roucouxs on "educational telly". It's not that we're completely alienated by anything that appears to be intellectually demanding – no, really it isn't – we'd just rather watch someone messing about in the name of science than someone standing in a lecture theatre and pointing at an annotated cross section of a urethra.

The bloke currently messing about is Adam Hart-Davis, a lovable chemist who, in the past, has worked behind the scenes on programmes featuring Dr Magnus Pyke and Johnny Ball. We loved both of these characters because of their relentless enthusiasm for their subject; Hart-Davis combines that same enthusiasm with brightly coloured shirts, odd-coloured socks, and an unwavering commitment to looking a bit silly.

The first in his new three-part series, Just Another Day, followed his morning routine while examining the history and science behind such mundane objects as alarm clocks, shirt buttons, shampoo and dental floss. This was combined with scenes of partial nudity that Mr Hart-Davis has, in previous series, shown himself to be strangely eager to participate in: here we see him cavorting in the shower and plucking his armpit hair with tweezers.

Now, many TV execs might imagine us diving for the off-switch during these sequences because Hart-Davis's rotund frame is being forced upon us, rather than that of a smooth-limbed, supple young presenter at the peak of physical health. But hey, we already know that watching the History Channel isn't the most efficient route to sexual arousal.

No, we're after facts. And they come thick and fast, along with friendly diagrams, bouncy backing music, and – surprise, surprise – these facts stick in our heads. I'm now bursting with information about water clocks, soap manufacture and disposable razors. Go on, test me.

Yes, of course this resembles kids’ television, and I know that we don't get detailed analysis of the fluoridization process of toothpaste, and I'm well aware that the references to air pressure aren't accompanied by barometers and datasheets. But if anyone thinks that informative, entertaining programmes like these are an abominable waste of resources, I suggest they be forced to sit in a silent classroom for two hours while copying out the periodic table.

Just Another Day continues on the History Channel (Sky 529, Virgin 234) on Thursdays at 8:00pm.

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