Wonderful

OK maybe I was being a bit ambitious with my "One post every day" plan but I'll try to do better.

Brian Cox is a name most will associate with the famous Scottish actor of such films as "Manhunter", etc but a large number of people in the UK are now beginning to associate the name with another discipline. Professor Brian Cox's recent series "Wonders of the Solar System" has just finished on BBC2 and was truly awe inspiring at points.

Sure it had it's flaws. There was a lot of repetition and sometimes Professor Cox's enthusiasms seemed to be getting in the way of progressing the actual programme but I doubt anyone who watched it hasn't come away somewhat blown away by at least one or two of the episodes. I know I now have a much greater appreciation for not only how amazing our solar system is but more so, how precarious our very existence on planet Earth is.

The episodes that focussed on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn were the most interesting, suggesting that out there somewhere the conditions required for life may exist, if not in our own solar system then surely somewhere else in the universe but you do really get the impression from the programme that we are incredibly lucky to have evolved as we have done. I for one won't look up into the sky at night again without a new-found understanding of what amazing wonders are out there.

Professor Cox himself has divided opinion amongst my friends but I really enjoyed his obvious enthusiasm and excitement about his subject (although you do occasionally get the feeling it's a little put on for the camera). I'm not certain he necessarily needed to go to some of the more exotic locations to make his points but I can forgive him for this and just hope he hasn't used up too much of my licence fee in doing so. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more programs from him in this vein in the future which can only be a good thing.

If you missed it I urge you to buy the DVD when it surely comes out. Ideally a DVD release would be in the form of one or two longer programmes that maybe cut an hour or so from the total running time and tighten it up a bit but I assume that is unlikely to happen. Either way it's excellent.