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Situating the Story: The Early Years of Evolution on the Wireless

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Evolution on British Television and Radio

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture ((PSSPC))

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Abstract

Beginning with the first national radio broadcast on evolution in the UK in 1925, this chapter outlines how the biologist and science populariser, Julian Huxley, and early BBC science producers embedded early broadcasts with a progressive evolutionary narrative. Influenced by many external pressures—including nineteenth-century popular science, belief in radio’s power to educate and personal eugenicist ideology—the chapter shows how restrictions and censorship in other areas of broadcasting led Huxley to ally his progressive narrative of science with a distinctly secular humanist outlook. The chapter concludes as contestations over the autonomy and focus of science broadcasting increased in the late 1940s, arguing that Huxley’s approach and the progressive narratives it relied upon were able to bridge both didactic and science in society approaches to science broadcasting.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Julian Huxley, The Stream of Life (London: Watts, 1926), 1. Excerpt from The Stream of Life by Julian Huxley reprinted by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop (www.petersfraserdunlop.com) on behalf of the Estate of Julian Huxley.

  2. 2.

    Founded in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd, following the recommendations of the Crawford Committee, the British Broadcasting Corporation, a non-commercial Crown Chartered organisation replaced the original consortium of private companies, on January 1, 1927. For more on the institutional history of the BBC in this period, see Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume I: The Birth of Broadcasting (Oxford University Press, 1961).

  3. 3.

    While broadcast coverage was increasing year on year during this period, the BBC’s radio service was primarily broadcast from regional stations in major urban centres via their associated transmitters. In the case of The Stream of Life although made in London the broadcast went out on the following stations: Aberdeen – 2BD, Belfast – 2BE, Birmingham – 5IT, Bournemouth – 6BM, Cardiff – 5WA, Glasgow – 5SC, London – 2LO, Manchester – 2ZY, Newcastle – 5WO. BBC Genome Project, http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk and BBC, The British Broadcasting Corporation Handbook, (HMSO, 1928), 161–184.

  4. 4.

    Huxley, The Stream of Life, Preface. For an overview of Huxley’s popular science writing during this period, see Peter J. Bowler, Science for All: The Popularization of Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain (University of Chicago Press, 2009), 221–227.

  5. 5.

    Robert Olby, “Huxley, Sir Julian Sorell,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/31271.

  6. 6.

    For more on Huxley’s career, see C. Kenneth Waters, Julian Huxley, Biologist and Statesman of Science: Proceedings of a Conference Held at Rice University, 25–27 September 1987 (Rice University Press, 1992).

  7. 7.

    The use of human technology to illustrate the process of biological evolution had a long tradition in print. For example see Samuel Butler, “Darwin among the Machines,” The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, June 13, 1863. Available in full online http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6173/6173-h/6173-h.htm (last accessed 05/06/2021).

  8. 8.

    A Picture Book of Evolution was advertised in elite publications, such as The Freethinker (e.g. “Watts & Co’s Publications”, The Freethinker, February 22, 1925, Vol. XLV, No. 8, 127). For an example of a review criticising the veracity of the content of the book see: “Books of the Day”, The Manchester Guardian, October 11, 1932, 5. The 4th edition of the book, updated and amended by C. M. Beadnell, was published in 1948 and can be viewed online: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.18999 (last accessed 17/06/2021).

  9. 9.

    For more on the modern evolutionary synthesis see: Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology (Princeton University Press, 1996). In particular chapter six, “Reproblematizing the Evolutionary Synthesis”, 191–210.

  10. 10.

    Julian Huxley, Evolution, the Modern Synthesis (Allen & Unwin, 1942).

  11. 11.

    For example, by 1925 only the first two of J. B. S. Haldane’s influential ten paper series, A Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection had been published.

  12. 12.

    See: Smocovitis, Unifying Biology; Maurizio Esposito, ‘Utopianism in the British Evolutionary Synthesis’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Defining Darwinism: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Debate, 42:1 (2011): 40–49, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2010.11.007; and Paul Weindling, ‘Julian Huxley and the Continuity of Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Britain’, Journal of Modern European History 10:4 (2012): 480–499, https://doi.org/10.17104/1611-8944_2012_4.

  13. 13.

    Huxley presented a strikingly similar, albeit more expansive, version of this vision in the preface to his collected Essays of a Biologist published just two years earlier in 1923. Julian Huxley, Essays of a Biologist (A. A. Knopf, 1923), available online in full: http://archive.org/details/essaysofbiologis1923huxl (last accessed 17/06/2021).

  14. 14.

    For an example of radio listing see “Some Coming Wireless Talks: The King’s Speech,” The Manchester Guardian, September 26, 1925, 13.

  15. 15.

    See, for example, Huxley, Essays of a Biologist.

  16. 16.

    Joe Cain, ‘Julian Huxley, General Biology and the London Zoo, 1935–42’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society 64:4 (2010): 359–378, https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2010.0067.

  17. 17.

    J.M. Parrish and John R. Crossland (Eds), The Science of Living Things, The Standard University (Odhams Press Ltd, 1935), 455–488. For a short obituary of Eldon Moore see: ‘Mr. Eldon Moore.’ The Times, November 22, 1954, 8.

  18. 18.

    Historical records show Huxley and Moore’s paths crossing upon several occasions, largely through Moore’s role as editor of The Eugenics Review and other journalistic endeavours. For example, Moore referenced Huxley’s contributions in a report from the first World Population Conference in Geneva in 1927, where both were in attendance, see: Eldon Moore, “The World Population Conference,” The Spectator, September 10, 1927, 8.

  19. 19.

    For a general introduction to the history of radio broadcasting in the UK see Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume II: The Golden Age of Wireless (Oxford University Press, 1965); and Sean Street, Historical Dictionary of British Radio (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).

  20. 20.

    For example, Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, ‘From Engaged Citizen to Lone Hero: Nobel Prize Laureates on British Television, 1962–2004’, Public Understanding of Science 27:4 (2018): 446–457, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662518760790; Timothy Boon, ‘“The Televising of Science Is a Process of Television”: Establishing Horizon, 1962–1967’, The British Journal for the History of Science 48:1 (2015): 87–121, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087414000405; and Rupert Cole, ‘1972: The BBC’s Controversy and the Politics of Audience Participation’, Public Understanding of Science 26:4 (2017): 514–518, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662516684231.

  21. 21.

    See, for example, Timothy Boon, Films of Fact: A History of Science in Documentary Films and Television (Wallflower Press, 2008); and Allan Jones, ‘Elite Science and the BBC: A 1950s Contest of Ownership’, The British Journal for the History of Science 47:4 (2014): 701–723, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087413000927.

  22. 22.

    Allan Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, Public Understanding of Science 21:8 (2012): 968–983, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662511419450.

  23. 23.

    Mr A. O. Bentley Ph.C, “Medicinal Plants and Their Uses”. BBC Nottingham – 5NG, 9 March 1925; and Prof. H. H. Turner – I, “Eclipses of the Sun”. Written and presented by Professor H. H. Turner. BBC London – 2LO, 24 May 1927.

  24. 24.

    The BBC began using longwave transmission from a station in Daventry (5XX) in 1925, and in March 1939 this transmitter began broadcasting, the National Programme, a service programmed centrally in London and broadcast nationwide. For more see Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Chapter V.

  25. 25.

    For early examples of learned societies contacting the BBC with suggestions for science content see the file Talks. Science, File 1B, 1937–1941, R51/523/2, BBC Written Archives, Reading, UK (BBC-WA).

  26. 26.

    See Prof. G. Elliott Smith, “The Movements of Living Creatures”. Written and presented by Grafton Elliott Smith. BBC London – 2LO, January 17, 1927; and The Origins of Life – III, “The Evolution of Plants and the Formation of Coal”. Written and presented by Albert Seward. BBC London – 2LO, November 19, 1929.

  27. 27.

    For more on popular science print formats, their development and publisher’s (lack of) ability to reach new audiences, see Bowler, Science for All, 75–113.

  28. 28.

    See Reith, J. Broadcast over Britain (Hodder and Stoughton, 1924), and Matheson, H. Broadcasting (Butterworth, 1933), as introduced and contextualised in Allan Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, Public Understanding of Science 21:8 (2012): 969–972, https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662511419450.

  29. 29.

    Both Schools and Adult Education became their own departments outright during the 1930s; see Chap. 4.

  30. 30.

    Jones, 968. For more on Adams’ career at the BBC see Kate Murphy, Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC (Springer, 2016), 181–186.

  31. 31.

    Murphy, Behind the Wireless; and Sally Adams, “Adams, Mary Grace Agnes (1898–1984),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30750.

  32. 32.

    Jones, 968–969.

  33. 33.

    “Research and Discovery”. Presented by Gerald Heard. BBC National Programme, May–August 1930.

  34. 34.

    Alison Falby, “Heard, Henry Fitzgerald [Gerald] (1889–1971),” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/54040; Gerald Heard, The Ascent of Humanity: An Essay on the Evolution of Civilization from Group Consciousness Through Individuality to Super-Consciousness (Harcourt, Brace, 1929).

  35. 35.

    Reith actually borrowed the phrase, originally “entertaining, educating and informing” from the American broadcaster David Sarnoff who first used it in 1922. The slightly reformulated version to “inform, educate and entertain” is still at the heart of the BBC’s mission statement. “This is the BBC 1922–1926,” History of the BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/research/culture/reith-5, (last accessed 02/04/2019); and “Broadcasting: Copy of Royal Charter for the continuance of the British Broadcasting Corporation”, Cm 9365, December 2016. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/2016/charter.pdf, (last accessed 17/06/2021). For more on Reith’s early vision for the organisation see: John Reith, Broadcast over Britain (Hodder and Stoughton, 1924).

  36. 36.

    The exception to this pattern was the Music department.

  37. 37.

    See BBC-WA file R6/14, “Central Religious Advisory Committee, Correspondence, 1925–1964”. For an overview of the early development of religious broadcasting at the BBC see: Francis House, “Review of the Aims and Achievements of Religious Broadcasting, 1923–1948”, BBC paper presented to CRAC, 14 September 1948, R6/22/1, BBC-WA.

  38. 38.

    Francis House, “Review of the Aims and Achievements of Religious Broadcasting, 1923–1948”, BBC paper presented to CRAC, 14 September 1948, R6/22/1, BBC-WA; and Kathleen Bliss, Leslie E. Cooke, T.W. Manson, and J. Masterson, “The Main Stream of Historic Christianity”, Sub-committee paper presented to CRAC, R6/22/1, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  39. 39.

    “Humanism and Religious Broadcasting,” BBC Paper presented to CRAC, 7 October 1958, R6/21/8, BBC-WA.

  40. 40.

    Robert Bud, ‘“The Spark Gap Is Mightier than the Pen”: The Promotion of an Ideology of Science in the Early 1930s’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 22:2 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2017.1298548.

  41. 41.

    For examples from Radio Talks and Schools Education see respectively: Key Words. “Christians and Humanists.” BBC Home Service, February 8, 1956; and For Schools and Colleges. “Living in the Present: Belief.” BBC One, November 29, 1965.

  42. 42.

    See “Rcont1 Talks. Sir Julian Huxley, File II, 1943–1949,” BBC-WA.

  43. 43.

    For more on the ideological depiction of science in television drama, see Robert G. Dunn, ‘Science, Technology and Bureaucratic Domination: Television and the Ideology of Scientism’, Media, Culture & Society 1:4 (1979): 343–354, https://doi.org/10.1177/016344377900100403.

  44. 44.

    Bud, ‘“The Spark Gap Is Mightier than the Pen”’, 7.

  45. 45.

    Bud, 5–6.

  46. 46.

    See, for example, Gerald Heard, Science in the Making (London: Faber and Faber, 1935) which was based on the BBC radio series of the same name which ran in various guises from 1931 to 1935.

  47. 47.

    Charles Singer, “Scientific Humanism”, The Realist, 1:1, April 1929, 12–18.

  48. 48.

    Archibald Church, “Editorial”, The Realist, 1:1, April 1929, 180.

  49. 49.

    While originally conceived and most commonly promoted by Julian Huxley, scientific humanism was also forwarded by others beyond his immediate social circles. For example see the US philosopher, Oliver Reiser, The promise of scientific humanism toward a unification of scientific, religious, social and economic thought, (University of Wisconsin, 1940). For more on the historian of science George Sarton’s views on scientific humanism and the integral role the history of science could play in promoting this secular worldview, see Robert Westman, ‘The “Two-Cultures” Question and the Historiography of Science in the Early Decades of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies’, Sartoniana 32 (2019), 58–60.

  50. 50.

    Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, “The unifying vision: Julian Huxley, evolutionary humanism and the evolutionary synthesis” in Harmke Kamminga and Geert Somsen, Pursuing the Unity of Science: Ideology and Scientific Practice from the Great War to the Cold War (Routledge, 2016), 33.

  51. 51.

    Gerald Heard, The Ascent of Humanity: An Essay on the Evolution of Civilization from Group Consciousness Through Individuality to Super-Consciousness (Harcourt, Brace, 1929).

  52. 52.

    Bud, ‘“The Spark Gap Is Mightier than the Pen”’, 2–4.

  53. 53.

    Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, 977–979.

  54. 54.

    A prime example is the 1936 series Scientists At Work; for more see “Talks. Science, File 1A, 1936”, R51/523/1, BBC-WA.

  55. 55.

    Vitalists and neo-vitalists believed that there is a fundamental non-physical element, a “vital spark” or “élan vital”, which separates organisms from non-living entities. “Biology in the Service of Man.” Written and Presented by J. Arthur Thomson, produced by Mary Adams. BBC National Programme, May–July 1932. For more on J. Arthur Thomson see Peter J. Bowler, “From Science to the Popularisation of Science: The Career of J. Arthur Thomson”, in David M. Knight and Matthew D. Eddy, Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 1700–1900 (Routledge, 2017) 231–250; and Bowler, Science for All, 233–240.

  56. 56.

    Huxley, The Stream of Life, 50–56.

  57. 57.

    Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, 11.

  58. 58.

    For example, the editor of The Realist Archibald Church, who was also an MP during the period, in 1931 attempted to pass a Private Member’s Bill through Parliament that would have seen the introduction of sterilisation for those with mental defects.

  59. 59.

    Huxley was also involved with many projects in these areas beyond his work with the BBC; for example, having produced an Oscar-winning and pioneering natural history documentary, The Secret Life of Gannets released in 1934 (watch online: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-private-life-of-the-gannets-1934-online), and acting as an adviser to the Associated Realist Film Producers organisation (ARFP) founded by the documentary filmmaker Paul Rotha from 1936. See Timothy Boon, Films of Fact: A History of Science in Documentary Films and Television (Wallflower Press, 2008) 83–87; and Timothy Boon, “‘To formulate a better plan for living’ Visual communication and scientific planning in Paul Rotha’s films, 1935–1945” in Harmke Kamminga and Geert Somsen, Pursuing the Unity of Science: Ideology and Scientific Practice from the Great War to the Cold War (Routledge, 2016), 161.

  60. 60.

    Declan Fahy, “The Celebrity Scientists: A Collective Case Study”, PhD Thesis (Dublin City University, 2010), 13–17.

  61. 61.

    See respectively: “The Telepathy Experiment.” Presented by Julian Huxley. BBC, London – 2LO, 19 September 1928; Bird Watching and Bird Behaviour, “The Pleasure of Bird Watching.” Written and Presented by Julian Huxley. BBC National Programme, 2 May 1930; and Humanism, “Scientific Humanism.” Written and Presented by Julian Huxley. BBC National Programme, 5 December 1943.

  62. 62.

    Originally called Any Questions? and broadcast on the BBC Forces Radio service from January 1941, due to popular demand the show quickly began being repeated on the Home Service and was renamed The Brains Trust in 1942, running on the Home Service until 1949. In 1955 the format was resurrected for BBC Television where it ran until 1961.

  63. 63.

    The interested reader can watch a clip of Huxley answering questions from an episode of The Brains Trust broadcast in 1945, at the British Pathé online archive: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-b-b-c-brains-trust-answering-any-questions-1/ (last accessed 30/03/2021).

  64. 64.

    Richmal Crompton, William and The Brains Trust (Macmillan Children’s Books, 1989). For a synopsis and more information on Just William see the website ‘Just William’s Year’: http://justwilliamsyear.co.uk/william-and-the-brains-trust/william-and-the-brains-trust (last accessed 30/03/2021).

  65. 65.

    C. V. Salmon, “Huxley’s final talk in ‘Reshaping Man’s Heritage’”. BBC Minute, 29 March 1943, R51/528/2, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  66. 66.

    Listener Research Department, “A Listener Research Report: “Reshaping Man’s Heritage””. BBC audience research report, 14 April 1943, R51/528/2, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  67. 67.

    See for examples chapter VII – The Evolution of Man, and VIII – The Hope of Betterment in Huxley, The Stream of Life, and Julian Huxley, The Uniqueness of Man, (Chatto & Windus, 1943).

  68. 68.

    J. S. Huxley et al., Reshaping Man’s Heritage: Biology in the Service of Man (G. Allen & Unwin, 1944), 90–91.

  69. 69.

    Esposito, ‘Utopianism in the British Evolutionary Synthesis’.

  70. 70.

    For more on the broader intellectual discussions going on during the period and their interactions with broadcasting see Timothy Boon, Films of Fact: A History of Science in Documentary Films and Television (Wallflower Press, 2008), chapter 4.

  71. 71.

    For more on H. G. Wells and his role in broadcasting on evolutionary themes, see Chap. 5. The interested reader can listen to H. G. Wells opening episode of this series, first broadcast on 15 January 1943 online at the BBC Archive website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hg_wells/12408.shtml (last accessed 05/06/2021).

  72. 72.

    See, for example, Biology in the Service of Man (1939) and Man’s Place in Nature (1942) covered in Chap. 4. Not to be confused with Biology in the Service of Man (1932), from 1937 onwards this title was used for a distinct series in the “For the Schools” slot, which although hugely varied in its content, nearly always framed biological science in a utilitarian and functionalist way; for example see: For the Schools, Biology in the Service of Man, “Man’s Origin”. Written and presented by Professor Harold Munro Fox. BBC National Programme, 21 June, 1939. Man’s Place in Nature. BBC Home Service, October–December 1942.

  73. 73.

    See, for example, Barnes, “Letter to A.V. Hill,” 27 January 1943, and other letters in R51/523, BBC-WA. For complaints in response to Man’s Place in Nature, from both scientific and religious perspectives, see R41/51/1, BBC-WA. For an overview of the series see: A. V. Hill, “In Terms of the Universe”, The Radio Times, September 25, 1942, 4.

  74. 74.

    See, for example, James R. Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies: A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870–1900 (Cambridge University Press, 1979).

  75. 75.

    T.H. Hawkins, “Science and Broadcasting”, Nature, 8 July 1944, 3897:154, 38–39.

  76. 76.

    Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, 977–979.

  77. 77.

    Kate Terkanian and Hugh Chignell, ‘Nesta Pain’, Media History 26:1 (2020): 20–33, https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2019.1679619; and Richard Hewlett, “Pain, (Florence) Nesta Kathleen (1905–1995)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58024.

  78. 78.

    War Against Disease. Written and produced by Nesta Pain, BBC Home Service, 26 February 1944; and Forces Educational Broadcast, War Against the Tsetse Fly. Written and produced by Nesta Pain, BBC Light Programme, 21 September 1945.

  79. 79.

    Nesta Pain, “B – Science in Feature Programmes”, BBC note on Science and Radio, a conference held at Cambridge, 18–19 May 1946, R51/529/4 – Talks. Science and Broadcasting, 1943–1946, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  80. 80.

    Formed in February 1945, the Forces Educational Unit (FEU ) was tasked with assisting the reintegration of soldiers returning in their thousands into civilian life. In meeting this remit many of the broadcasts produced were innovative, and the output of the FEU attempted to balance education and the development of relevant applied skills, with the motivational and morale raising role many Forces Education broadcasts had played during the war. Asa Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: Volume IV: Sound and Vision (OUP, 1995), 736–743. For more on FEU’s role in science broadcasts on evolution, see Chap. 4.

  81. 81.

    Hogben was Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen where Clow had completed his PhD and was a peer and colleague of Julian Huxley’s; both men were founding Editorial Board members of the Journal of Experimental Biology in 1923, and both were on the Associated Realist Film Producers advisory committee, along with fellow biologist J. B. S. Haldane. For more, see Lancelot Thomas Hogben, Lancelot Hogben, Scientific Humanist: An Unauthorised Autobiography (Merlin Press, 1998).

  82. 82.

    For a detailed account of Clow’s career that situates his work within the wider trajectory of science broadcasting at the BBC, see Jared Robert Keller, ‘A Scientific Impresario: Archie Clow, Science Communication and BBC Radio, 1945–1970’, PhD Thesis, Imperial College London, 2017, http://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/57504.

  83. 83.

    For more on Somerville’s long and pioneering career at the BBC, see Murphy, Behind the Wireless, 156–159.

  84. 84.

    For more on Schools Broadcasting’s role in the development of content on evolution see Chap. 4. Allan Jones, ‘Speaking of Science: BBC Science Broadcasting and Its Critics, 1923–64’ (University College London, 2010), 143–146, http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/19988/; Keller, ‘A Scientific Impresario’, 65–67.

  85. 85.

    Mary Adams, now a producer in the television department, brought her experience of developing science features for radio to these discussions. See Timothy Boon, Films of Fact: A History of Science in Documentary Films and Television (Wallflower Press, 2008), 192–196.

  86. 86.

    Michael Leapman, “Singer, Aubrey Edward (1927–2007)”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/98830.

  87. 87.

    Jones, ‘Speaking of Science’, 143, 163–170.

  88. 88.

    Jones, ‘Mary Adams and the Producer’s Role in Early BBC Science Broadcasts’, 16.

  89. 89.

    This review of science broadcasting was triggered by the reformulation of the BBC’s General Advisory Council in 1947 to include more diverse representative interests—including more scientists—and occurred when the whole of the BBC was itself under review as part of the Beveridge Committee convened in 1949. See Boon, Films of Fact; Briggs, The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, 1995, 184–191.

  90. 90.

    Mark Oliphant, “The Broadcasting of Science,” Memorandum to the BBC General Advisory Council, 6 May 1949, R6/34 GAC – Science Sub-Committee, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  91. 91.

    Oliphant , “The Broadcasting of Science.” Other figures supporting Oliphant’s position included the physicist Sir Lawrence Bragg and the civil servant and politician Sir John Anderson, see: “The Presentation of Science,” Report of discussion of the BBC General Advisory Council, 2 June 1949, R6/34 GAC – Science Sub-Committee, BBC-WA. All BBC copyright content reproduced courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

  92. 92.

    Attributed to the poet Alfred Tennyson the phrase “red in tooth and claw” became inextricably linked with popular British debates about evolution following Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. See Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw (University of Chicago Press, 1999).

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    Alexander Hall

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Hall, A. (2021). Situating the Story: The Early Years of Evolution on the Wireless. In: Evolution on British Television and Radio. Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83043-4_2

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