Radio Times

Review by:

David Butcher

This is a really life-enhancing series, helping people unlock potential they never knew they had. And it’s high on vicarious pleasure, too, because while the guinea pigs go through fascinating tests to find out, in tonight’s case, how good at multitasking they are or whether they can pick out faces from a crowd, we sit thinking, “That looks a breeze” or more likely, “How can they do that?”

Here psychologists are looking for a “supertasker” who can juggle fast-moving challenges as an ambulance dispatcher, and someone who can recognise faces glimpsed only briefly on a station concourse. Richard Bacon presents with the right mix of wit and wonder.

About this programme

5/6. Track cyclist Cassie Gledhill is identified as having an extraordinary ability for multitasking by psychologists Jo Iddon and David Strayer. Her skills are put to the test when she works a Friday night shift as an ambulance crew dispatcher in Birmingham after only three days training. Elsewhere, neuropsychologist Ashok Jansari picks out three members of the public as being potentially gifted at remembering the faces of people they have met only once, then tests their abilities at London's Liverpool Street train station. Presented by Richard Bacon.

Cast and crew

Cast

Presenter

Richard Bacon

Crew

Executive Producer

Helen Hawken

Series Producer

Spencer Kelly

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