''Dave Gorman's Important Astrology Experiment'' is a

BBC television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

comedy series presented by

Dave Gorman David James Gorman (born 2 March 1971) is an English comedian, presenter, and writer. Gorman began his career writing for comedy series such as '' The Mrs Merton Show'' (1993–1998) and ''The Fast Show'' (1994–1997), and later garnered a ...

which was broadcast in 2002. The studio-based show was interspersed with footage of Gorman literally taking the advice of

horoscopes A horoscope (or other commonly used names for the horoscope in English include natal chart, astrological chart, astro-chart, celestial map, sky-map, star-chart, cosmogram, vitasphere, radical chart, radix, chart wheel or simply chart) is an astr ...

for 40 days and nights to see if following

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that propose that information about human affairs and terrestrial events may be discerned by studying the apparent positions ...

enhances love, health and wealth, and, ultimately, happiness. To see if his life was better for following

, Gorman's twin brother Nick was used as a

control experiment A scientific control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables other than the independent variable (i.e. confounding variables). This increases the reliability of the results, often through a comparison betwee ...

. A panel of experts - including agony aunt Denise Robertson, TV doctor Hilary Jones and financial advisor

Alvin Hall Alvin Darnell Hall (born June 27, 1952) is an American financial educator, author, and media personality. Financial adviser Hall studied for a Bachelor of Arts in English at Bowdoin College. After a period working as a college professor (teac ...

- commented on the success, or otherwise, of the progress of the experiment. The studio audience voted on whether Dave's life was turning out better as a consequence of the experiment compared to Nick's, with results represented as a graph. The series was cited in a scholarly journal as an example of "television that combines humour with serious topics, which has been increasingly evident since the 1990s" alongside ''

The Mark Thomas Comedy Product ''The Mark Thomas Comedy Product'' (from series 2 onwards - known as ''The Mark Thomas Product'') is a television show fronted by the English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter, Mark Thomas and directed by Michael Cumming. It ...

'' and ''

The Mark Steel Lectures ''The Mark Steel Lectures'' are a series of radio and television programmes. Written and delivered by Mark Steel, each scripted lecture presents arguments for the importance of a historical figure. History The lectures were originally broadcas ...

''. The show was written by Gorman and

Danny Wallace Daniel, Dan or Danny Wallace may refer to: * Daniel Wallace (politician) (1801–1859), U.S. Congressman from South Carolina * Daniel B. Wallace (born 1952), professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary * Daniel Wallace (aut ...

, and followed their series '' The Dave Gorman Collection''.

Episode list

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, tt0335650 BBC television comedy 2002 British television series debuts 2002 British television series endings British English-language television shows