Join Me, Yes Man…. Horizon?

Horizon has been a staple of the BBC2 diet for many years, popping up every series with a sombre and sincere, while at the same time, engaging series of documentaries on contemporary science-related topics. However, for the first time ever the show has been given its very own presenter in the form of ex-Dave-Gorman-sidekick turned self-made, comedy writer/ presenter, Danny Wallace. If you have been fortunate enough to read either of Danny’s books, “Join Me” or “Yes Man” you will be very well aware that he has a fantastically witty persona and a certain geekish charm that, to me at any rate, makes him extremely watchable.

The problem that I have here is that I do not see why he was chosen as the front man for Horizon. The first film was titled Chimps Are People Too where Danny set out to prove that these primates were so closely linked to humans that they, too, should be treated as people. So, this provided plenty of light hearted moments and comedy voiceover material and was, all in all, a fine documentary. However, last year I wrote a review about an episode of Horizon dealing with the Gang Of Guys principal that endeavoured to explain how terrorist cells could spring up independently without intervention from any coordinating or overseeing influence, and for the life of me I do not know how a Danny Wallace presented documentary on terrorism would play out, given his natural light heartedness. I am hoping we’ll get to see a deeper, more serious persona on screen when the nature of the material demands it, I am fearing it may represent a, dare I say it, dumbed down Horizon… Next week’s show is about face transplants, so I’m hoping for the former.

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Tags: bbc2, Chimps-Are-People-Too, Danny-Wallace, Dave-Gorman, Documentary, Factual, Horizon