The BBC Darwin Season is a series of television and radio programmes commissioned by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

in 2009 to celebrate the bicentenary of the great naturalist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

(1809-1882) and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his revolutionary book,

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

in November, 1859. In partnership with the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

, the BBC produced a special documentary,

Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life ''Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life'' is a 2009 television documentary about Charles Darwin and his revolutionary theory of evolution through natural selection, produced by the BBC to mark the bicentenary of Darwin's birth. It is part of the ...

, narrated by

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and writer. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the nine nature d ...

, and three major series.BBC Press Pack: The BBC's Darwin Season: marking the life and work of Charles Darwin – introduction
/ref> Other presenters involved are

Andrew Marr Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg (born 6 October 1939) is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is the editor and presenter of ''The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010, 2012–2023), and the presenter of the BBC Radio 4 documentary series ...

and Jimmy Doherty. The overall

commissioning editor In book publishing, a commissioning editor is essentially a buyer. It is the job of the commissioning editor to advise the publishing house on which books to publish. Usually the actual decision of whether to contract a book is taken by a senior m ...

for the season is Martin Davidson, the BBC's commissioning editor for specialist factual (in-house).BBC unveils line-up for Darwin season

Broadcast Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

, 3 July 2008 Contributing units of the BBC are BBC Science, the Natural History Unit, the Religion and Ethics department and the children's channel,

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

Highlights

Radio

Events in the Darwin season are broadcast on the broadcaster's flagship voice programming channel, Radio 4 and its arts and culture channel, Radio 3. : ''Radio 4'' *

presents ''Darwin: In Our Time'', a four-part documentary series examining "Darwin's writing remains such a profound influence on our understanding of the natural world." * In ''Dear Darwin'', five eminent contemporary thinkers present spoken letters to Charles Darwin "expressing their thoughts on his legacy.Dear Darwin

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

Craig Venter John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American scientist. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. Venter founded Celera Geno ...

, founder of

The Institute for Genomic Research The J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) is a non-profit genomics research institute founded by J. Craig Venter, Ph.D. in October 2006. The institute was the result of consolidating four organizations: the Center for the Advancement of Ge ...

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, comedian and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 19 ...

, theatre director, author and broadcaster **

Jerry Coyne Jerry Allen Coyne (born December 30, 1949) is an American biologist and skeptic known for his work on speciation and his commentary on intelligent design. A professor emeritus at the University of Chicago in the Department of Ecology and Evolu ...

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

professor of biology, writer ** Peter Bentley, researcher in

evolutionary computation Evolutionary computation from computer science is a family of algorithms for global optimization inspired by biological evolution, and the subfield of artificial intelligence and soft computing studying these algorithms. In technical terms ...

and

biologically inspired computing Bio-inspired computing, short for biologically inspired computing, is a field of study which seeks to solve computer science problems using models of biology. It relates to connectionism, social behavior, and emergence. Within computer science, b ...

Baruch Blumberg Baruch Samuel Blumberg (July 28, 1925 April 5, 2011), known as Barry Blumberg, was an American physician, geneticist, and co-recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (with Daniel Carleton Gajdusek), for his work on the hepa ...

, recipient of the 1976

Nobel Prize in Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single ...

. Blumberg identified the

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the '' hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. ...

virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...

, and later developed the diagnostic test and

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

for it. * Maritime historian

Robert Prescott General Robert Prescott ( – 21 December 1815) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. During a military career which spanned over fifty years, he participated in the Seven Years' War and the American War of Independence, inclu ...

seeks the final resting place of Darwin's ship in ''Hunting The Beagle''Hunting the Beagle

* Poet and journalist

Ruth Padel Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS (born 8 May 1946) is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author. Life She studied Greek at Oxford, where she sang in Schola Cantorum of Oxford, wrote a PhD on ancient Greek poetry, and was a Research Fellow at W ...

, a descendant of Charles Darwin, " xploresthe ideas and emotions which shaped Darwin" in a four-part series, ''Darwin: My Ancestor''Darwin: My Ancestor

: ''Radio 3'' * In ''The Origins Of The Origin'', Andrew Cunningham explores the intellectual context in which Darwin presented his work, particularly the precursors who presented earlier evolutionary theories.BBC Press Pack part 2
21 January 2009 * Rev Angela Tilby discusses Darwin's religious views in ''Darwin's Conundrum'' * ''The Essay: Darwin's Children'' is a series of essays in which representatives of five professions examine the impact of evolutionary theory on their field. **

Jonathan Gottschall Jonathan Gottschall (born September 20, 1972) is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He holds the title of Distinguished Fellow in the English department of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. He i ...

, literary darwinist: literary interpretation **

Judith Donath Judith Stefania Donath (born May 7, 1962) is an American computer scientist who is a fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard's Berkman Center, and the founder of the ''Sociable Media Group'' at the MIT Media Lab. She has written ...

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...

: online social networks such as

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Douglas Davies Douglas James Davies, (born 11 February 1947) is a Welsh Anglican theologian, anthropologist, religious leader and academic, specialising in the history, theology, and sociology of death. He is Professor in the Study of Religion at the Unive ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

, anthropologist:

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

** Diana Donald,

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

: art and aesthetic theory ** James K Galbraith: economics Darwin is also the subject of special editions of the programmes ''

Night Waves ''Free Thinking'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 weekly from Friday 5 April 2024. It was previously broadcast on Radio 3 as part of its "After Dark" late night programming. The programme is a rebranded version of ''Night Wave ...

'' and ''Words and Music''.

Television

* On

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

: ** "

", an introduction to Darwin's life and his theory of evolution, presented by

. ** ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'', a ten-part

nature documentary A nature documentary or wildlife documentary is a genre of documentary film or television documentary, series about animals, plants, or other non-human living creatures. Nature documentaries usually concentrate on video taken in the subject's nat ...

series produced by the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' T ...

and narrated by Attenborough. * On

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

: ** ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' a three-part series presented by

showing how the theory of evolution has influenced politics and society in the last 150 years. ** ''Jimmy Doherty in Darwin's Garden'', a three-part series based in which the presenter recreates some of Darwin's experiments at

Down House Down House is the former home of the English Natural history, naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London befor ...

. ** ''Did Darwin Kill God?'', in which philosopher and theologian Conor Cunningham of

Nottingham University The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

discusses the history of Christian attitudes to

Biblical literalism Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. It can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism: "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense", where literal me ...

, arguing that it is legitimate to accept Darwin's theory of evolution and believe in God. * On

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

: ** '' What Darwin Didn't Know'', a 90-minute examination of what we have learned since Darwin, presented by Armand Leroi. ** ''Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution Of The Origin Of Species'', a 60-minute documentary featuring biographers and scientists examining, through Darwin's own private writings, the internal struggle which Darwin went through during the twenty years he took to develop his ideas into a revolutionary book.

References

External links

BBC Darwin Season
website * * * * * {{IMDb title, qid=Q123516946, title=Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species Charles Darwin bicentenary BBC Television Darwin Season Educational broadcasting in the United Kingdom Documentary television shows about evolution