The Genius of Invention

*The Genius of Invention*
The Genius of Invention
Genre	Factual
Directed by	Victoria Bell
Presented by	Michael Mosley; Mark Miodownik; Cassie Newland;
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	4 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Dominic Crossley-Holland
Producers	Michael Tuft; Victoria Bell;
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	BBC Productions
Original release
Network	BBC Two; BBC HD;
Release	24 January –; 14 February 2013

The Genius of Invention is a British factual television series that was broadcast on BBC Two between 24 January 2013 and 14 February 2013. The series looks over the history of British inventions.

Production

On 23 August 2013, BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow announced the commissioning of the series.^[1] The main presenters of the series were Mark Miodownik, Cassie Newland and Michael Mosley.^[2]

Episode list

#	Title	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)^[3]
1	"Power"	24 January 2013 (2013-01-24)	1.60
How Britain uses power through technology.
2	"Speed"	31 January 2013 (2013-01-31)	N/A
How the steam locomotive, internal combustion engine and jet engine were invented.
3	"Communication"	7 February 2013 (2013-02-07)	N/A
The formation of machines that allow communication across the globe.
4	"Visual Image"	14 February 2013 (2013-02-14)	N/A
The inventors who discovered how to reproduce still and moving images.

Reception

Terry Ramsey of The Daily Telegraph gave the series three out of five stars and said that "despite the jumpy style and occasionally annoying chat, it had a lot of appealing science packed in, all neatly wrapped up so it didn’t even feel like we were learning. And it served as a useful reminder of just how much we rely on electricity."^[4] The Independent's Tom Sutcliffe said "everything from presentational style to the level of the material it contains it's essentially a children's programme. In fact, it calls for a new verb: to Bluepeterise, a shorthand for the increasingly fashionable technique of dividing the content up between three puppyishly eager presenters".^[5] Lucy Mangan, writing for The Guardian called it "terrible".^[2]

DVD release

The series was released in the original English as a region 2 DVD set by a Dutch company in 2015.

References

^ "BBC Two announces raft of new commissions". BBC. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b Mangan, Lucy (24 January 2013). "TV review: The Genius of Invention; Carved with Love; The Good Wife". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
^ "BARB Top 30s".
^ Ramsey, Terry (25 January 2013). "The Genius of Invention, BBC Two, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 October 2013.
^ Sutcliffe, Tom (25 January 2013). "Last Night's Viewing: The Genius of Invention, BBC2". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2013.

External links

[1] "BBC Two announces raft of new commissions". BBC. 23 August 2013. Retrieved 13 October 2013.

[Guardian-2] Mangan, Lucy (24 January 2013). "TV review: The Genius of Invention; Carved with Love; The Good Wife". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2013.

[3] "BARB Top 30s".

[4] Ramsey, Terry (25 January 2013). "The Genius of Invention, BBC Two, review". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 October 2013.

[5] Sutcliffe, Tom (25 January 2013). "Last Night's Viewing: The Genius of Invention, BBC2". The Independent. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2013.

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