230 Don't Ask Me

First  watched : Uncertain

This  ITV   popular  science show  was  basically  BBC's  Stump  The  Scientist   with  more  genial  hosts  and   regular  tele-friendly  experts. David  Bellamy , Rob  Buckman  ( like  Jonathan  Miller  a  doctor-cum-comic ) and  Miriam  Stoppard  were  three  of  them , the  latter  causing  a  stir  with  her  practical  demonstration  of  the  principle  that  babies  could  instantly  swim . All  of  them  were  overshadowed  though  by  Dr  Magnus  Pyke  who  became  an  instant  star  and  impressionists'  dream  with  his  wild-eyed  enthusiasm  and  manic  gesticulations.  He  became  everybody's  epitome  of  the  mad  scientist  and  in  the  early  eighties  became  an  unlikely  MTV  star  with  his  appearance  on  record  and  in  the  video  for  Thomas  Dolby's  She  Blinded  Me  With  Science.   

The  show  ran  from  1974 to  1978  with  the  host  changing  regularly. I  think  it  was  the  last  TV  gig  for  Austin  Mitchell  before  becoming  the  long-serving  Labour MP  for  Grimsby. It  was  re-branded  as  Don't  Just  Sit  There  in  1979  and  lasted  another  year  but  I don't  remember  that.

 Bellamy  and  Stoppard  are  both  still  around  campaigning  and  writing,  on  environmental  issues  and  women's  health  respectively. Buckman  , who  ironically  was  seriously  ill  himself , emigrated  to  Canada  in  1985  and  dropped  his  comedy  career  in  favour  of  militant  atheism  before  dying  mid-flight  between  London  and  Toronto  in  2011.  Pyke  , one  of  science's  great  populists,  was  actually  sceptical  of  the  benefits  of  using  science  and  technology  to  advance  material  comforts. He  died  in  1992  aged  83  , four  years  after  coming  off  worst  in  a  tussle  with  a  burglar.