BBC2 promotes intelligent TV with Darwin and Einstein dramas

Published Tuesday 3 January 2006 at 12:45 by Liz Thomas

Company Pictures, the independent production company behind hit shows such as Shameless and The Ghost Squad, is making two single dramas tackling the lives and works of Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

Both programmes are still in the early stages of development but have been commissioned by BBC2 as part of the channel’s push to broadcast highbrow, challenging television plays. In its schedule for early 2006 the broadcaster has already lined up productions of Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s Booker prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty, Riots at the Rite - based on Vaslav Najinsky’s controversial performance of his ballet The Rites of Spring in 1913 - and Pinochet in Surrey, starring Derek Jacobi.

One insider told The Stage: “The Darwin drama is based around The Voyage of the Beagle and tackles science through that but there is a real human side to all of it. The Einstein drama looks more at the connection between him and British scientist Thomas Addison.”

The move comes at a time when both the government and science lobby groups are concerned about the shortage of scientists graduating from British universities and are increasingly turning to the media to raise its profile. Andrew Millington, director of Public Awareness of Science and Engineering, said: “We must recognise the power of television to shape attitudes and TV drama is known to influence the choice of careers for many young people.”

Earlier this year Channel 4 attracted solid ratings of more than two million when it broadcast E=MC2, a drama documentary based on David Bodanis’ bestseller about the history of the famous equation, starring Aidan McArdle, Shirley Henderson, Emily Woof and Julian Rhind-Tutt.