Hawking

Not many public figures could get away with co-writing and narrating their own biographical documentary, but Professor Stephen Hawking is a true one-off. The cruel motor neurone disease that has immobilised his body hasn't stopped him from making Einstein-like advances in cosmology, forming the basis of a glittering career. Director Stephen Finnigan frames a remarkable life story with unique, intimate access to the 71-year-old's daily working life at Cambridge University, as a jet-setting superstar lecturer and centre of London's 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony. Having been given two years to live at the age of 21, Hawking's modus operandi remains "seize the day" and this close-range portrait leaves the viewer awe-struck and humbled by his continued good humour, and the dedication of those around him. Hawking is surprisingly candid about his failed marriages and weakness for the limelight, while warm testimony from family and friends and subtly staged reconstruction round out a captivating study of human endeavour.